With the changes in population structure, the golden generation of the 60s and 70s is gradually aging, and the number of laborers engaged in heavy physical labor is decreasing. And now the post-2000s would rather take less wages, even "slow employment", than do heavy physical work.
The future of infrastructure madness is industrial robots.
The big brother of China's industrial robots is Midea Group, which invested heavily in acquiring Kuka Robotics in 2016.
01
In the past seven years, Kuka
When Midea acquired Kuka, Kuka Robot, together with FANUC of Japan, ABB of Switzerland and Yaskawa of Japan, were called four major families. At that time, Kuka was the smallest in terms of revenue, close to Yaskawa, and about a quarter of FANUC.
From a purely revenue scale perspective, in 2017, Kuka's revenue was 27 billion RMB; In 2022, the growth rate is limited to 30 billion RMB.
But in terms of operating profit, it was 3.9 billion yuan in 2017; 6.3 billion yuan in 2022. There has been a significant increase.
Look at other companies of the four big families. FANUC has stood out from the crowd. Its revenue has almost doubled in seven years; But Yaskawa has not changed much.
From this perspective, Kuka's performance is average.
However, looking at the problem cannot be so simplistic.
After the acquisition of Kuka robots by Midea, they subsequently lost orders for the US military industrial complex. Although there is no specific data publicly available, it is also a significant income.
To be realistic, after the completion of M&A, orders for some sensitive fields abroad were transferred to FANUC, ABB, etc. Kuka's performance is mainly maintained by the rise of the Chinese market.
Kuka China has developed rapidly, and its robot business has helped the company improve its intelligent manufacturing level. In 2022, Kuka China's revenue reached 880 million euros, with a growth rate of 49.7%, achieving high-speed growth, with both orders and shipments reaching historical records; The company continues to deepen cooperation with BYD, Weilai, CATL and other leading customers to provide comprehensive solutions for new energy vehicle manufacturing.
At the same time, the robot business also assists Midea Group in improving its intelligent manufacturing level. As of 2022, the company's robot usage density has reached 500 units/10000 people, and plans to reach 700 units/10000 people in the next two years.
According to the 2022 annual report, the company has 166000 employees, approximately 8300 units. This means that within two years, the company will add at least 3300 robots.
02
Has Kuka's technology been absorbed? Do you have indigestion?
It should be said that Geely's acquisition of Volvo is a model for Chinese companies to go global. Prior to that, SAIC's acquisition of Shuanglong ended in failure. When companies in developed countries are unable to survive, they are also unwilling to accept acquisitions from Chinese companies, fearing that their technology will be "stolen".
Geely was able to complete its acquisition of Volvo in the heavily affected anti China region of Sweden, and the subsequent cooperation was smooth.
Except for some strong resistance before the acquisition, later on, Link almost covered Volvo and did not hear any sound of "stealing technology".
The reason is simple. Geely did not allow Volvo to transfer technology, but instead restructured the R&D structures of Geely and Volvo. A new technology R&D center was built next to Volvo, with almost unchanged work locations and increased salaries. Will Volvo's engineers come? I'm not using Volvo's technology, these engineers are all people I hired!
The essence of technology is talent.
The drawings from ten years ago may not bring much benefit, but only talent can plan the drawings for the next ten years.
How did Midea do it?
According to Midea's own introduction, the company has over 20000 R&D personnel and has established a global R&D scale advantage through a "2+4+N" global R&D network. Domestically, Shunde Headquarters Global Innovation Center and Shanghai Global Innovation Park are the core; Overseas research and development centers mainly focus on the United States, Germany, Japan, and Italy, leveraging their geographical and technological advantages, integrating global research and development resources, and forming a complementary global technology research and development capability. With a technology leading strategy to drive talent density and thickness, we will systematically build a global research and development layout.
Is this the template copied from Li Shufu?
Midea stated in its annual report that in 2022, Kuka China fully utilized Midea's experience and advantages in production and operation efficiency, and Kuka's first fully automated production line for heavy-duty robots in China was officially put into use. The production line was independently developed and designed by Kuka, and it was also the first "robot production robot" production line in Guangdong Province, achieving "unmanned" from the first process to the completion of the final product, significantly increasing single shift production capacity.
It is obvious that after 6 years, the most important thing for Midea's acquisition of Kuka was completed: it fully absorbed and digested Kuka's technology.
03
Midea's "Cold Winter"
In 2021, Midea Chairman Paul Fang put forward the "cold winter theory": Midea Group is not optimistic about the situation in the next three years, and will encounter an unprecedented cold winter, which will be more difficult than before.
From the revenue growth of Midea Group, it can be seen that the management of various business lines is relatively stable, but it has clearly entered a "bottleneck" period.
Based on this, Midea Group began to compress non strategic businesses.
Preserve and strengthen the traditional core category of household appliances. Small scale sub categories such as mother and baby, pets, etc. that affect the overall profitability of the group will be "optimized".
In terms of intelligent manufacturing, we will retain the "four major" industries of robotics and industrial automation, building technology, new energy vehicle components, and energy storage, as well as the "four small" businesses of Wandong Medical, Ande Zhilian, Meiyun Zhishu, and Meizhi Optoelectronics. Other businesses will be shut down and transferred.
Despite this, Midea still took the initiative to acquire an A-share listed company - Kelu Electronics.
This company is not doing well, but its core business is new energy storage, which has strong complementarity for Midea Group.
By integrating the entire process of various business units of Midea through the industrial robot business, we can basically cover the most important industries after industrial upgrading. It must be said that Midea has played a big game.