An interview with Simon Wu, Vice President R&D and co-founder, Homa Appliances

Being among the founders of one of the largest cooling products manufacturers in the world and in your position as VP R&D, you have been a privileged witness and actor of technological evolution in the cooling industry over the past twenty years. How did R&D in this field evolve over the years?

In the past, R&D concentrated mostly around the industrialisation stage of a product’s lifecycle. It was mainly about finding ways of optimising production while constantly improving product performance, which substantially amounted to the capacity of an appliance to produce cold efficiently. Over time there has been a shift in focus, from the product, i.e. the “container”, to the “content”, i.e. the food items it is meant to preserve. A lot of research was conducted on food, and the industry learned a lot about how it kept over time, and how different foods reacted to temperature and humidity, hence the re-discovery of crispers, the appearance of cool boxes and an increased degree of flexibility for consumers to set temperature and humidity levels themselves. It’s as if R&D had moved out of the factory and into the consumers’ homes.

What’s in store for us now? What are the current trends and scenarios that will influence the cooling industry inthe near future?

Today, the name of the game is “food preservation” as opposed to “producing cold”, and another effect of this changing perspective is that consumers lifestyles have also come into the equation. That produced a huge leap forward both under the technology aspect and in terms of design. The objective of R&D isn’t simply meeting technical specifications anymore, but also satisfying consumers’ expectations in terms of emotions, status and eating and shopping habits. In recent years, there’s been a growing attention on the part of consumers to environmental issues. Healthy eating, translating into increased demand for wholesome foods and well-being ingeneral, are also trending. That’s a clear indication of what the market expects of us: products that are respectful of our planet and serve our new, healthier lifestyles. Add to that the fact that the refrigerator has become the centrepiece of the most important room in our homes, the kitchen, and a leading character in the staging of our lifestyles, and you’ll know where we’re going next: mean-looking, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and food-savvy fridges featuring innovative, leading-edge technology.

To be continued...