When it comes to choosing cabinets and wardrobes for home decoration, you may have heard a similar saying:
“The standard hardware in our package is enough, but if you spend a few thousand more, we can upgrade the whole set to German imported ones, which are smoother to use and of higher quality.
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When many people heard this, they gritted their teeth and increased their money in order to live in peace for more than ten or twenty years.
But a fact that is happening is that many times, the “standard equipment” that you didn’t like may not be the Wu Xia Amon back then.
Let’s talk about a change that many people have not noticed.
If you go to big-name custom home furnishings such as Oppein, Gujia, and Sofia, you will see that the default hardware accessories in many of their packages, such as hinges and slide rails, are listed in the supplier column as a Foshan company called “Higold”.
That’s right, it’s the domestic brand that you regard as the “basic model”.
Behind this is actually a silent market change.
Back in 2022, there was an energy problem in Europe, and various costs soared. Even German hardware giants such as Blum and Hettich, which we are familiar with, cannot keep up with their production capacity.
They either reduce production or raise prices, and a large number of domestic orders cannot be delivered at all.
The opportunity just came.
The leading domestic hardware factories, represented by Henkel, took advantage of the situation to catch this wave of “high-end orders” that fell from the sky.
In the past, it was difficult for you to enter the high-end supply chain, but now people come to you and beg you to supply.
The most direct comparison is price.
In the home furnishing store, a German Kesboma wall cabinet linked pull basket is priced at 3,157 yuan.
The price of a model with similar functions to Higold is about 1,100 yuan, which is two-thirds cheaper.
Some people may ask, if it is so cheap, can the quality be good?
To be honest, it is more than enough for daily use in most families.
Some high-end pull baskets from Higold are designed to have a service life of more than 10 years, while many low-end products from low-end brands may become rusty and have abnormal switch noise in three to five years.
Cost-effectiveness is the sharpest weapon of domestic head brands.
Data speaks volumes.
Industry statistics show that in 2020, the share of domestic hardware in the domestic high-end market was less than 20%, and by 2024, this number has quietly climbed to 45%.
More than doubled.
This shows that more and more people, including the most knowledgeable leading home furnishing brands, are voting for domestic hardware with real money.
In addition to price advantages, domestic hardware has another advantage that overseas brands cannot match: personal service.
Kitchens and apartments in China come in all kinds of shapes, and their storage needs are also varied.
Domestic brands can respond quickly and customize solutions for the weird corners of your home, and the installation master can be called as quickly as a phone call.
Imported brands have a long process. Sometimes if a small part breaks, you have to wait for several months for spare parts.
In fact, the biggest increase in the decoration market now is no longer new houses, but a large number of second-hand house renovations and old house renovations.
This part of demand is precisely the area where domestic brands are best at.
They better understand the pain points of existing housing, and are more willing to spend time on the small and beautiful market of “old renovation”.
Higold has even opened more than 30 “old renovation storage stores”, which are dedicated to serving the renovation of old houses.
This change is felt most deeply by the enterprises themselves.
Ou Jinfeng, the boss of Higold, said that their expansion of production is very “conservative” and they only dare to plan for the next one when the existing plant’s production capacity is almost fully used.
Having said that, their actions in recent years are not small at all.
In 2025, more than 1 billion was invested to build an intelligent manufacturing base, and in 2026, another 2 billion was spent to acquire land, preparing to build a new base.
When the new base reaches full production, it will be able to produce more than 800 million units a year just for basic parts such as hinges and guide rails.
If there weren’t so many orders that we couldn’t handle them, who would be so generous in increasing production capacity?
So, next time when the salesperson of the decoration company enthusiastically recommends “upgraded imported hardware” to you, you might as well ask: “Which brand is our standard equipment?”
”Perhaps you will find that the “bronze” you once thought has actually been quietly cultivated into a “king” somewhere you can’t see.
Have you ever encountered a situation where a salesperson deceived you into adding money to upgrade imported accessories during decoration? How did you choose in the end?
