(Yicai) April 25 -- Chinese kitchen device maker Hangzhou Robam Appliances posted a 10.2 percent leap in net profit last year from the year before as the country’s kitchen appliance market stages a comeback after five years of sliding growth.

Robam raked in net profit of CNY1.7 billion (USD240 million) in 2023, according to the Yuhang-based company’s latest annual report published yesterday. No predictions for 2024 were given.

Revenue soared 9 percent to CNY11.2 billion (USD1.5 billion), outpacing the industry average. This was spurred by earnings from overseas sales which surged 9.3 percent to CNY67.8 million (USD9.3 million). Sales of oven extractor hoods soared 10.1 percent to CNY5.3 billion (USD730 million) and that of gas stoves jumped 8.7 percent to CNY2.6 billion.

China’s sales of kitchen appliances achieved growth last year after tumbling for five years, according to statistics from Beijing All View Cloud Data Technology. The kitchen and bathroom appliance market climbed 5.3 percent year on year to CNY166.9 billion (USD23 billion).

However, in the first three months, Robam's year-on-year growth in net profit slowed to 2.4 percent to CNY398 million (USD54.91 million), according to its first-quarter earnings report also released yesterday.

An uptick in the real estate market this year will spur kitchen appliance sales, but leading companies in the sector are expected to perform well, according to a research report by Guosheng Securities.

China has said it will subsidize the exchange of old consumer goods with new ones this year to boost consumption, with added financial incentives for the partial renovation of kitchens and bathrooms.

This will definitely help boost sales of smart and eco-friendly kitchen and bathroom devices, Shi Ting, general manager of the kitchen and small appliance division at German market research firm GfK's China Market Monitor, told Yicai. It will also help improve product structure and enable leading brands to leverage their strengths.

"However, there is unlikely to be a big impact on generating incremental growth," Shi said. "With the downturn of the property market, it is unrealistic for the kitchen and bathroom appliance sectors to rely on policies to reverse the current slow growth."

Editor: Kim Taylor