Home appliances makers eye single-person households with premium products

Twin Pressure Petit rice cooker, compact dishwasher Marshmallow [Source : Cuckoo]

Home appliance companies in South Korea are pitching compact products with premium features and designs to meet demand from rapidly increasing number of single-person households.

Demand for premium home appliances for single-person households are growing as millennials and other younger generations prefer high quality products. At the of September last year, the number of single-person households stood at 9.37 million, exceeding 40 percent of all households for the first time, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety.

Cuckoo Electronics Co. recently released a new product called the Twin Pressure Petit rice cooker. Although it is a small rice cooker for three persons, it is equipped with a ‘twin pressure’ function that is not installed in existing low-cost ones. The brand’s compact dishwasher Marshmallow can be used conveniently regardless of the kitchen’s area.

German kitchenware WMF Group introduced its compact product lineup in the Korean market, called Kitchen Minis, which was designed to target high-income professional consumers living in small apartments in downtown Germany. The Glass Mini Blender is very small item with a capacity of 800ml but grinds frozen fruits and ice smoothly. The Mini Grill Plus provides an oil pan for pork belly which is 3 times larger than the existing ones.

Dayou Winia, a Korean home appliance maker, sells a 3-4kg clothes dryer equipped with a fast-speed drying mode, which can dry laundry weighing less than 1kg in 50 minutes.

Carrier Refrigeration launched a “fit-in” refrigerator for households with one or two people in August. This refrigerator has a width of less than 70cm and is designed considering the depth of a typical kitchen sink.