Do you feel like you can't get up on Monday?
At this moment, a cup of fragrant coffee instantly comes to life.
Nowadays, having a cup of coffee every day has become the norm for many young people. The cup of coffee that comes in the morning is as important as life-saving water.
Even a cup of Luckin Coffee every day is a significant expense over the years.
So, budget conscious office workers decided to DIY a cup of coffee at home, which gave rise to the demand for home coffee machines.
Xie Jianping, a female entrepreneur from Shunde born in the 1970s, spent 14 years in the monopolized coffee machine industry in Europe, making domestic coffee machines a hot commodity in the global coffee circle.
In January of this year, China's semi-automatic Italian coffee machine Gree officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, sprinting towards IPO.
So, how did Xie Jianping become popular in the global coffee industry?
Most people know that Shunde is famous for producing air conditioners, microwave ovens, and other products, which are sold all over the world. But I don't know, Shunde's coffee machines are also very famous.
Nowadays, the global annual production of coffee machines is nearly 100 million units, of which about 80% come from China, and out of every three coffee machines exported by China, about one comes from Shunde.
Shunde has been making coffee machines for a long time, much earlier than when coffee became the "lifeline" for young people to work.
In the early 1990s, Shunde became the major hub for global coffee machine manufacturing due to its low labor costs and complete industrial chain support.
Gemile's predecessor was Korima Electric Appliances, which was established in Shunde, Guangdong in 2011. It began to operate coffee machines through OEM processing, which resulted in thin profits and difficult survival space.
When there was almost no profit to speak of, Gree took the lead in abandoning OEM (OEM) and directly moved the commercial model from the bar to the kitchen at home. In 2013, when overseas e-commerce was launched, it sold well and successfully entered the market.
Smart consumers who see this coffee machine priced around 3000 yuan don't even consider buying it. The selling point of Gemley lies in the key number of "58 millimeters".
58mm "represents the diameter of the coffee powder bowl and is the standard for commercial coffee machines, while" 54mm "is the mainstream standard for household machines.
The "58mm" coffee machine can thoroughly stimulate the aroma of coffee beans, extract their dense oil, and create a rhythm that instantly ignites the soul of coffee. It is the choice of professional players.
And '54mm' has a mediocre feeling, such as a smaller coffee powder bowl, unstable extraction pressure, and a disconnect between the brewed coffee and hot water, making it difficult to blend together. It tastes particularly bland like water, and compared to coffee in a caf é, it feels like drinking a fake cup of coffee.
Xie Jianping led the team to not simply modify the appearance of the coffee machine, but to thoroughly and comprehensively reform the heating system, pressure control, and stability functions of the entire coffee machine, with the aim of allowing ordinary people to make a cup of coffee that is as good as a coffee shop at home.
It has been proven that Xie Jianping's strategy of "household price, commercial standard" was indeed the right move, accurately targeting the consumption psychology of young people today, and enabling Gemile to move steadily and accurately in the later coffee market.
Actually, it was particularly risky at that time.
In 2011, the annual per capita coffee consumption in China was only 4-5 cups, far below the global average.
That is to say, drinking coffee at that time belonged to a niche culture, which made us admire Xie Jianping's foresight and courage to think and act.
Since 2018, coffee has become widely popular in China.
In the same year, Luckin Coffee and Starbucks began to compete in the Chinese coffee market.
Luckin Coffee, priced at 9.9 yuan per cup, has deeply penetrated the hearts of young working people and they can no longer extricate themselves from it. A cup of Luckin Coffee every day costs at least 3000 yuan in a year, while Starbucks' corresponding expenses are at least tens of thousands.
Everyone who drinks coffee has an account in their heart.
For migrant workers, just a small salary does have to be counted as useful, with a fixed daily coffee expense. Is it really a considerable amount of money that flows down so slowly?
Is there a better solution?
Can I buy a home coffee machine that can handle it all at once, and then buy some coffee beans and milk afterwards?
When the demand is large enough, the business of Gemley Company comes.
And Gree Company insists on cost-effectiveness as the breakthrough point, ensuring the ultimate extraction performance of coffee while making the price super competitive.
In addition to being widely loved domestically, in Southeast Asia, Gemile has almost become a dream machine for young people.
On the streets of Thailand and Vietnam, there are trunk coffee stalls and independent coffee machines on the roadside. At first glance, they all use the same Gremli coffee machine.
In the first three quarters of 2025, Gree's revenue and sales in the Asian market alone exceeded 64 million.
Looking at the fact that the brand Gree has been able to enter the foreign consumer circle as a domestic brand, it has mainly been hit by dimensionality reduction in several aspects.
In terms of product quality, their R&D team is a group of experts who have a background in precision watches. They put out the spirit of making watches to do research and development, and it is this insistence on quality that has enabled Gemile to walk particularly solidly and steadily even in the European and American markets with the deepest coffee culture.
In terms of price, Gree has directly transferred the extraction system and precise temperature control of commercial machines worth tens of thousands of yuan to household machines, resulting in a high cost performance ratio and an immediate impact on dimensionality reduction.
In terms of marketing, Gree takes an unusual approach and never advertises hard. Instead, it directly hands over the coffee machine to global coffee bloggers, allowing them to use it directly and produce test results.
Those picky reviewers found that the quality of Gree was directly comparable to European and American brands, which naturally made Gree's fame soar instantly.
Due to keeping up with the pace of young people in China, Gemile has achieved effective promotion time and time again.
A Shanghai auntie shared on Xiaohongshu how to teach her daughter the steps to make coffee, which won countless likes. The attentive "Little Sweet Potato" discovered that the coffee machine used by this auntie was a machine from Gemley. Unconsciously, Gree gradually penetrates into the hearts of consumers.
Gemila also has a very high market sensitivity. When it detects that Middle Eastern users like to drink Türkiye coffee (this coffee powder requires special fineness), it can quickly develop new models to grind coffee as fine as flour.
Gree's leap tells all entrepreneurs that Chinese brands can still win respect and pricing power without relying on low prices.
As long as the technology is strong and perseveres to the end, even if choosing a small track, one can still be far ahead in the industry.
Author | Qingqing
Image | Source network intrusion and deletion
Liaoning ICP Security No. 21122402000217