Xinbao Co., Ltd.: From "Borrowing a Ship to Sail Overseas" to "Building Ships to Sail Overseas"

(Source: Economic Daily)

Reprinted from: Economic Daily

In Le Liu Subdistrict, Leliu Street, Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, a scene of bustling activity can be seen inside the industrial park of Guangdong Xinbao Electrical Appliances Co., Ltd.: transport vehicles shuttle back and forth, and processes such as injection molding, hardware, electrical control, and final assembly are efficiently coordinated. Centered on the headquarters, Xinbao Co., Ltd. built the “Half-Hour Supply Chain Ecosystem” and it is running at full speed; a large volume of home appliance products are shipped from here to the world. In the product exhibition hall, categories such as kitchen appliances, household appliances, and personal care appliances are abundant.

At the 138th Canton Fair held last year, new products launched by Xinbao Co., Ltd., such as commercial coffee machines and unmanned beverage workstations, became the focus of the exhibition thanks to their hard-core technology, drawing large numbers of overseas procurement buyers to stop and negotiate. From the Shunde plant area to international exhibitions, from the domestic market to the global stage, Xinbao’s path of going overseas continues to expand; its impressive achievements confirm its development strength. In 2025, the company’s revenue was nearly 16.2 billion yuan, maintaining steady growth in emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America.

At present, with the global home appliance industry undergoing in-depth reshuffling and uncertainty in external markets increasing, this set of results is especially hard-won. “The more complex the environment, the more we need to hone our internal strengths. Steady overseas expansion has never been about a single breakthrough; it relies on capabilities across the entire system.” Xinbao Co., Ltd.’s President Wang Wei said this is the core logic for the company’s development. With three major advantages—supply chain, brand, and technology—the company is completing a crucial transformation from “going overseas by borrowing ships” to “going overseas by building ships.”

Building an Overseas Base

In the home appliance industrial cluster of the Pearl River Delta, Xinbao Co., Ltd. does not win solely by single-unit scale; instead, it builds a foundation for core competitiveness by relying on outstanding supply chain coordination capabilities.

Walking into the company’s headquarters park, the feature that core manufacturing processes are highly concentrated is very clear: processes such as molds, injection molding, hardware, electrical control, and assembly are arranged in a centralized layout; upstream and downstream supporting enterprises take root nearby, forming an efficient industrial agglomeration effect. “Most of our key component suppliers are within half an hour’s drive from the headquarters,” project deputy director Liu Shuguang of Xinbao Co., Ltd. said.

This “Half-Hour Supply Chain Ecosystem” is the result of the company’s years of precise planning. Centered on R&D and production needs, the company firmly controls key supporting capabilities through methods such as building it on its own, taking equity stakes, and deep binding. “Supply chain efficiency directly determines productivity. Home appliance products iterate quickly, and demand for customization is high—if the response is delayed, we miss the market. What we are building is a systems engineering approach, not simply contract manufacturing.” Wang Wei said, adding that the cluster-and-chain strategy has also expanded from the local level to a broader dimension.

In Shunde, Xinbao relies on multiple manufacturing clusters to achieve “half-hour rapid response”; in the Pearl River Delta, it has built an “hour-long supply chain ecosystem.” In its overseas layout, it also adheres to cluster-based and system-based supply chain building and refuses to transfer only a single production capacity. The Indonesia plant is a key part of the company’s overseas layout. The project’s total planned area is 900 acres; phase one has already been put into operation. It mainly handles electric, electric-heating, and refrigeration categories of products. In the future, the company will introduce core suppliers to build a complete overseas industrial chain. At present, several Chinese-funded enterprises and local home appliance companies have already gathered around the plant, and the initial form of an overseas industrial cluster has begun to take shape.

“Simply transferring production capacity is far from enough. Only by replicating and exporting mature supply chain organizational capabilities can we be the key to resisting risks and strengthening the internal core,” Wang Wei said. This globalized layout model enables the company to have stronger flexibility and resilience when handling international trade fluctuations and changes in tariff policies. With two-way efforts in domestic cross-regional collaboration and overseas supply chain coordination, it becomes a solid support for the company’s steady overseas expansion.

Product Capability Drives the Way

At the beginning of 2025, the Chicago Household Goods Exhibition released a strong signal of a change in the competitive logic within the small home appliance industry. Previously, the main exhibitors were U.S. importers and wholesalers. Now, the number of exhibition booths from Chinese companies has increased significantly, and fundamental changes have taken place in product update speed, pricing systems, and channel structures. The traditional contract manufacturing model has met with unprecedented shocks, and it has also pushed Xinbao Co., Ltd. onto a path of transformation.

In 2013, Xinbao Co., Ltd. began to plan its brand business. But in the early stages of transformation, obstacles were significant. Some customers with whom it had cooperated for years had concerns about the company’s dual model of “contract manufacturing + branding,” and even reduced orders; internally, the company also faced considerable pressure. “But we are very clear that if we stick to a single contract manufacturing role, our development space will only get narrower and narrower,” Wang Wei said openly.

After careful consideration, the company firmly implemented a “multi-model parallel” strategy: on the one hand, it stabilizes the basic contract manufacturing business and continuously improves R&D, delivery, and service capabilities; on the other hand, it steadily cultivates its own brands and builds a full-capability system that is close to the end-market. Today, the company has formed a mature pattern in which original equipment manufacturing, original design manufacturing, and the development of its own brands develop collaboratively. The proportion of original design manufacturing has increased sharply from 15％ to 50％, and its independent R&D and design capabilities have been recognized by global customers. According to its plan, over the next 5 years, the revenue share of its own brands will rise significantly and become a new engine for growth.

As the core carrier of Xinbao’s independent brand, Dongling bears the important mission of brand leapfrogging. Founded in 2003, Dongling began with kitchen small home appliances. It established brand recognition in the field of cooking and culinary arts. In recent years, it has closely followed the concept of “modernization of Chinese life,” deepened its focus on user needs, expanded the boundaries of products, and rolled out scene-based products such as fabric cleaning machines, steam cleaning machines, and multi-functional electric steamers. It precisely addresses pain points such as household cleaning and healthy cooking, driving the company’s transition from “manufacturing capability overflow” to “product capability drives the transformation.”

“Dongling is not just simple OEM. We dig deeply into users’ pain points and produce high-quality products based on our supply chain and technology advantages, achieving an upgrade from word-of-mouth to brand effects,” Wang Wei told reporters.

Being a “Tailor for the Industry”

Xinbao Co., Ltd. has always adhered to a principle internally: “Doing well in standardized models is basic skills; doing well as a ‘tailor for the industry’ is the key to breaking the bottleneck.” This positioning precisely matches today’s needs for scenario-based, intelligent, and personalized small home appliance products, and it also places very high demands on the company’s R&D and manufacturing capabilities.

“Some online new products go from concept to mass production in only a few months,” said Chen Guanghua, deputy director of Xinbao Co., Ltd.’s technology management department. Relying on the advantages of coordination across the entire industrial chain, Xinbao Co., Ltd. can complete the full process—from project initiation to delivery of complex new products—within 2 to 3 months. In the first half of 2025, a certain leading brand entrusted the company with the development of a flagship commercial product. The team delivered a prototype in just 45 days.

To achieve this speed, the project team takes multiple measures. Core personnel are stationed on-site at suppliers, compressing the sampling cycle from 10 days to 3 days. When requirements are unclear, it conducts pre-research on multiple solutions and verifies them to avoid repeated adjustments. It also establishes a rapid response mechanism: technical issues are answered within 3 minutes, and feasibility analyses are provided within 2 days.

Behind efficient delivery are continuous technological investment and technical accumulation. In 2024, the company’s R&D investment reached 660 million yuan, accounting for 4% of sales. It has nearly 2,900 R&D personnel and more than 5,600 patents (including more than 300 invention patents). It has built multi-level R&D platforms, including national-level enterprise technology centers and industrial design centers.

Xinbao Electrical Appliances Research Institute, newly established at the end of 2024, has set up research bases in Shunde, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. It focuses on core areas such as intelligence and refrigeration/heating, and has already produced multiple achievements, such as a self-developed IoT platform and high-speed hair-dryer duct technology, providing source support for innovation.

On the R&D front line, engineers always maintain a “continuous improvement” mindset. Senior engineers continuously study with an empty-cup mindset; even for the single category of electric water kettles, it is subdivided into seven or eight combinations of functions. Focusing on key technologies such as ion wind and precise temperature control, Xinbao deepens industry-university-research cooperation with well-known universities. At the same time, it introduces AI tools to analyze data from platforms such as Amazon, accurately capturing consumption trends and shortening the decision-making chain.

“The combination of ‘technology + mechanism’ enables Xinbao Co., Ltd. to maintain flexible response and high-quality delivery capabilities in the global market. Looking to the future, the company is moving from a ‘leading small home appliance manufacturer’ to a ‘comprehensive electrical appliance enterprise.’ It is expanding into new tracks such as commercial coffee machines and lawnmower robots, and it will continue to drill down and cultivate where it excels, doing every task to the extreme.

Driven by the dual forces of globalization and consumption upgrading, Xinbao relies on three major advantages—supply chain coordination, brand innovation, and technology R&D—and is accelerating the completion of its transformation from an ‘OEM giant’ to an ‘innovative smart manufacturer,’ writing a new chapter for Chinese home appliance enterprises going overseas with steady steps.

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