KITCHEN LIFESTYLE
KITCHEN LIFESTYLE ADVERTORIAL OUR COMPANY HAS BEEN STEADILY GROWING OVER THE PAST 40 YEARS Jong-Boo Kim President, Kuvings Driving sales through healthy Established in 1978, Kuvings has grown over 40 years into a recognisable MOTIV1 IS THE FIRST JUICER TO SUCCESSFULLY APPLY IOT TECHNOLOGY IN THIS MARKET 44 Kuvings started with a juicer and blender in 1978, introducing a slow juicer in the 1980s, a food processor in the 1990s and home yogurt maker in the 2000s. The firm launched its whole slow juicer, commercial whole slow juicer and vacuum blender in 2010. We started by asking Kuvings’ president, Jong-Boo Kim, about the company’s commitment to R&D. Kuvings R&D centres’ main research themes are innovation, nutrition and health. We have been investing our best efforts to offer the smart kitchen to consumers by making appliances with innovative technology such as IoT and Artificial Intelligence. How has the business developed in Korea, Asia and globally? If you search Kuvings on the internet, you will find lots of product information, recipes, promotional articles and more. These are the results of successful marketing cooperation with our partners worldwide to expand the Kuvings brand on- and offline. They offer our products to customers as the solution for a healthy lifestyle. Thanks to all the efforts of our partners, we have become what we are now. What makes Kuvings different to other manufacturers in the market? Our company has been steadily growing over the past 40 years, in a tough business environment. We have accumulated comprehensive know-how in technical design as a manufacturer. We introduced the world’s first big-mouth whole slow juicer and vacuum blender with a noise reduction cover under the Kuvings brand and have exported these products to over 80 countries. This has helped build the global foundation for the Kuvings brand. Our competitive advantage over other companies is the enthusiasm to satisfy the world’s consumers with innovative products developed with the exceptional work ethic of every member of our company. Everyone at our headquarters and every overseas branch eagerly pursues innovative ideas and meets the challenge of finding designs and technologies. Can you tell us about your R&D department? Our research centre has four teams: the home appliances development team, the health-related appliances development team, the new technology development team and the IoT development team. After our first-generation juicer in 2010, we introduced the world’s first Whole Slow Juicer which grabbed more media and consumer attention than ever before since we started to develop the original juicer. Unlike other juicers in the market, our Whole Slow Juicer requires almost no preparation of materials. Just drop the whole fruit in and enjoy the full and rich original fruit taste and nutrition. Our research centre has a number of research employees with doctoral degree and state-ofthe-art research facilities. Working with university research centres, we have developed the technique for effective nutrition analysis and fermentation for the juice which is suitable for our Whole Slow Juicer. We share all the information with our vendors and consumers to maximise their satisfaction and give their feedback to our product development. What are your “star” products at IFA? During IFA, we are demonstrating the most popular model in our product line, EVO820. This machine has been successfully launched around the world. But the newest products we are introducing to
KITCHEN LIFESTYLE ADVERTORIAL Kuvings Bio Research Centre to develop new recipes for IoT juicers. innovations consumer brand with a number of healthy kitchen appliances the public for the first time here are the Kuvings HealthFriend IoT Juicer – called MOTIV1, and the durable commercial juicer, CS700 Master Chef. MOTIV1 is the first juicer to successfully apply IoT technology in this market. It presents our vision for a future product development direction which satisfies consumer needs. What are the main areas of growth for Kuvings? Anyone who is interested in a healthy dietary life and likes to squeeze juice from fruit or to mix ingredients should consider Kuvings. With our slow speed whole masticating technology, Kuvings slow juicers efficiently cold-press ingredients and make 100% natural juices, smoothies and nut milks with maximum nutrients. What are the trends in the juicing market? Starting with the high-speed juicer in the past, the juicer market has been moving toward slow juicers and whole slow juicers. As the home whole slow juicer market is growing, consumer demand for cold-pressed juice from juice bars or cafes is bigger, which means the rapid expansion of commercial whole slow juicer market. In order to lead this market trend, Kuvings is preparing to launch a commercial whole slow juicer with durability and technology called CS700 Master Chef. What does the future of the juicing category look like? In the current home environment, the smart service and technology based on IoT and AI has been growing very fast. This trend is forcing the juicer product to be equipped with the connectivity to the smart devices and healthcare service. We believe this smart technology increases the efficiency in the juicer and its services as well as consumer satisfaction. What is your vision for the future? Apart from the traditional juicers to focus on the premium value, quality and design, Kuvings tries to aggressively apply IoT technology on our products and to build the smart environment to satisfy consumer needs. We are facing the new technological shift with IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. It is called “the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. Our everyday lives will be changing fast and dramatically. In order to step forward in this fast-changing environment, we are focusing on developing the product which helps to improve individual life and value. Kuvings will spearhead of fast-changing trends to satisfy the consumers’ needs and desires. How important is IFA as a platform to meet buyers? We are here to meet our partners, show our innovative products to the broader audience at IFA, who are looking to find new products and new technologies. We are also looking ahead to next year, in terms of how we can further advance our technology. While we already have around 30 strong distribution partners here in Europe including in Germany, France, Scandinavia, Poland and Italy – we are looking for new distribution partners with whom to develop our business. We would also like to cooperate more with major department stores in terms of developing the market » HALL 9 / Stand 210 AWARDS FOR KUVINGS JUICER The US Consumer Report selected Kuvings as the Best Juicer in 2016 and 2017. A firm commitment to product development and aggressive R&D investments were the main reasons why Kuvings has been able to expand its real value around the world. It is a well-known fact that Kuvings’ innovative technology and design comes from heavy investment in product R&D. Yet in spite of all the recognition it has received as an innovationdriven company, Kuvings continues to work hard to sustain its reputation as an R&D company. As a medium-size company, it is very unusual to fill 20% of the total workforce with research employees and to maintain an extensive research centre. All these efforts make us a leader in the new technology research and design development. www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Saturday 1 st & Sunday 2 nd September 2018 45
