South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. plans to make full use of Dacor Inc., a leading luxury home appliance brand in the United States it took over last month, to expand its presence in the U.S. and European high-end built-in appliance markets that are tightly contested by local brands.

Dacor will make its name as Samsung Electronics’ “ultra-premium home appliance brand,” Yoon Boo-keun, president of Samsung Electronics’ consumer electronics division, vowed on Thursday on the sidelines of IFA, Europe’s largest trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances held in Berlin, Germany.

Dacor, a luxury built-in home appliance brand in the U.S., was acquired by Samsung Electronics last month. Founded in 1965, the company headquartered in the City of Industry in California has gained competitiveness and reputation as a top-notch home appliance brand in the North American high-end appliance market including the U.S. and Canada. With Dacor, Samsung aims to tap not only into the U.S. market but also the European market where built-in home appliances are also widely popular.

According to industry sources, built-in home appliances account for 15 percent of Europe’s total home appliance market while 40 percent of the U.S. market. Local built-in brands including Miele, Siemens, and Bosch have already cemented their dominance in the European market while other local brands are fiercely vying in the U.S. As part of efforts to expand its presence in the two regions, Samsung Electronics may buy more local brands that have been well received by local consumers for years instead of entering the markets with its own brand.

“The possibility is always open for us to push forward additional mergers and acquisitions to promote (our consumer electronics) business,” Yoon said.

The executive said that the Korean consumer electronics behemoth will focus to make its high-end products available to a broader range of consumers with more innovative products such as quantum-dot televisions, secure new growth engines in the business-to-business market, and solidify its lead in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry.

Samsung Electronics, which has remained the No. 1 brand in the world’s TV market for the past decade, has proclaimed that quantum-dot technology should lead the world’s TV industry in the next 10 years. Yoon added that the company will strive to take lead in the future display market with quantum-dot technology, calling it “the material of dream and display of dream.”

With regard to home appliances, Yoon noted that after the company has successfully increased sales of premium products with more than half of its global sales now coming from high-end products, Samsung Electronics will continue to put out efforts to further boost sales of luxury home appliances that will help to improve the company’s profitability. The company will enhance its business-to-business sector by focusing on the air conditioning system market, Yoon said.

By Lee Seung-hoon

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