Hua Di Pan Yejiang: Staying true to the original aspiration and anchoring a new path of high-quality development through long-termism

Ask AI · How does Pan Yejing’s cultural integration strategy help drive the rise of “guochao” (Chinese homegrown style)?

Among the 16 “strong-country” construction goals mentioned in the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan” outline, building a manufacturing powerhouse is listed first. As one of the pillar industries of manufacturing, the transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development of the home appliance industry naturally draw significant attention.

Today, as the benefits of the “post–real estate” era fade and challenges brought on by accelerated consumption upgrading intensify, competition in the home appliance market grows fiercer. With the industry entering a slow-growth cycle, companies must find a way to break through if they want to cross the cycle—they need to become steadfast leaders.

In the kitchen appliance segment, Vatti is playing exactly this role.

Pan Yejing, Chairman and President of Vatti, believes that by focusing on core business, aligning with the wave of industrial transformation, making products better and strengthening the main business, private enterprises seize the biggest opportunity.

This statement is clearly yet another on-the-ground implementation of his “let’s do it” spirit. As the industry-recognized “doer” and “pioneer,” Pan Yejing’s forward-looking ideas such as “white-technology” and “home integration,” the “third way of thinking” about how the industry should develop, and the business transformation results Vatti has achieved under his leadership—all have left a vivid mark on the industry.

Drawing on Vatti’s industrial story, Pan Yejing’s entrepreneurial spirit can perhaps be summarized with two keywords: users, responsibility.

Craft with dedication—beyond users’ expectations

On March 30, 2026 Vatti’s brand launch event was held in Hangzhou. At this “life’s ‘clean’ realm” event, Vatti once again exceeded users’ expectations with craftsmanship.

“Porcelain” was the most prominent element on site—the “Cihua” product suite released by Vatti. Ye Xiaochun, a master of Chinese ceramic art and the first person to perfect the “bingslie (ice-crack) pattern” re-firing technique of Ge kiln (哥窑), was invited by Vatti to share his intangible heritage story of “traveling across ancient kilns, turning over ancient books, and reclaiming the ‘bingslie pattern’ treasure.” During his collaboration with Vatti, he felt a similar dedication to excellence: “To perfectly recreate the charm of Longquan celadon, we refined and perfected it more than a hundred times—every detail, we didn’t let go.”

When that shade of “after the rain, sky turns azure” elegance entered the kitchen, and blended and coexisted with modern technologies such as 543 “easy-clean” patents and “cleaning-clean kitchen,” it makes kitchens odor-free, easy to clean, and full of style—while also allowing you to effortlessly recreate cooking scenes with firewood flavors. Who wouldn’t be moved?

On a deeper emotional level, the long-standing culture carried by “porcelain” matches the consumer demand behind the awakening of “guochao” and the expression of cultural confidence. Vatti can precisely position “porcelain” as a shared national cultural memory because it is based on keen insight into users and long-term attention to culture.

It was Pan Yejing who landed the key piece.

In past interviews, Pan Yejing repeatedly emphasized that private enterprises should shoulder the responsibility of promoting traditional culture. By growing deep roots in traditional culture, both companies and industries can draw from immense development momentum.

With that, Vatti’s cultural map unfolded—spanning Dunhuang, Mile, Luoyang, Xiangyang, and then multiple ancient cities of a thousand years such as Hangzhou this year. At the same time, Vatti also brings Eastern cultures such as the Silk Road, geomancy (feng shui), and Chinese-style cooking to international stages like London and Paris.

In addition, Vatti also took a different route, using “fashion” to quickly close the distance between younger people and traditional culture.

Zhang Linghe, the newly appointed brand spokesperson for Vatti who arrived on site for the launch event, held a conversation with Pan Yejing about kitchens and fashion. As a fashion icon and known as an “ideal match” for younger people, Zhang Linghe believes that young groups have unique confidence in their aesthetic taste and can sense future trends in fashion. A great kitchen appliance brand should understand everyone’s pursuit of poetry and faraway places.

Pan Yejing agreed. He said, “Food culture and life aesthetics are both the focus of Vatti’s research. By anchoring a differentiated path built on ‘useful, good-looking, and easy-clean,’ we want to upgrade the kitchen into a runway, an amusement park, and a healing space—so everyone can enjoy a new Chinese-style fashion-meets-healthy lifestyle.”

For this new combination of “Vatti × Zhang Linghe,” the industry has given high acclaim. Most coverage agrees that Zhang Linghe’s focus, professionalism, youthful vibe, and sense of fashion all align with Vatti’s brand image. With her extremely high popularity, she can efficiently convey the value propositions Vatti advocates to younger audiences. Vatti will also use this opportunity to connect even more closely with young people, providing them with higher-quality products and solutions—truly making it a two-way journey between consumers and the brand.

Build strong muscle and shoulder the industry’s mission

This is the opening year of the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan.” At this new starting point, what plans does Vatti have? When asked about it, Pan Yejing’s answer remained concise yet hit the core: “We will insist on making two transitions—shifting from ‘selling products’ to ‘operating users,’ and from traditional manufacturing enterprises to service-oriented manufacturing enterprises.”

In fact, these two initiatives had already taken shape in Pan Yejing’s mind years ago and were gradually implemented, forming a “third way of thinking” that has had considerable influence within the industry.

Let’s look at the details one by one.

First, on the manufacturing side: the Vatti digital and intelligent industrial park—aligned with world-class lighthouse factories and with investment exceeding 10 billion yuan—has already entered full production. The park integrates “intelligent manufacturing, smart logistics, and smart park operations,” realizing digitalization and automation across the entire business chain. This is an important component of Vatti’s new-quality productive forces. Driven by this, more than 200 enterprises across upstream and downstream will usher in coordinated upgrades, strongly transforming the industry chain from “following” to “leading.”

In terms of AI technology implementation and scenario integration, Pan Yejing remains clear-headed and shows rare resolve.

As one of the first companies in the industry to launch an intelligent strategy, Vatti’s adoption of AI technology is more about examining it from the user perspective. Pan Yejing summarizes Vatti’s AI strategy into two dimensions: “explicit” and “implicit.” “Explicit” is for the user side—using AI to empower different products such as range hoods, stoves, and related appliances, enabling proactive sensing and effortless smart control so daily life needs less effort. “Implicit” refers to the “three-step” strategy planned internally by the enterprise. According to the introduction, Vatti is building an enterprise-level AI capability platform to promote intelligent transformation across the entire business chain.

On the brand side, besides the fashion-forward and youth-oriented transformation mentioned earlier, Vatti’s high-end positioning has also been seen as an excellent case in the industry. Pan Yejing’s concept of the “cleaning-clean kitchen” is the industry’s first systematic solution that directly addresses the “easy-clean” pain point. New technologies and new products developed around this have received warm market responses—In 2025, Vatti ranked #1 in total sales across all channels for self-cleaning range hoods in the segment featuring steam cleaning and high-temperature dissolution functions; #1 in retail volume for stainless steel gas water heaters; and the energy-boosting gas stoves won #1 in total sales across all channels…

“Kitchen appliance products need to reshape the value chain—from meeting functional needs to meeting emotional value needs, making them a carrier and a value-added choice for a quality life.” Pan Yejing’s line highlights the key to high-end development in the industry.

Also, in terms of “going global,” Vatti has long been planning ahead. The “Beko” brand under its umbrella has, for years, adhered to its core positioning of “global quality.” It has continuously optimized areas such as product R&D, manufacturing standards, and brand expression, with products sold to more than 120 countries and regions worldwide. In 2024, Beko’s overseas business revenue reached 760 million yuan, up 20.29% year over year—raising the sails for “China’s intelligent manufacturing going global” and “China’s brands going global.”

In truth, these initiatives are also multi-dimensional expressions of Pan Yejing’s “be first to act” style. This Vatti leader often says, “In running a business, the focus is on breakthroughs rather than maintaining the status quo. If you stay in your comfort zone for the long term, it’s hard for a company to grow big and strong, and hard for it to remain evergreen.”

Drucker, the “father of modern management,” left an important viewpoint in his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship: when facing the same or similar opportunities for innovation, the ability to seize those opportunities differs from person to person. Only those who truly have entrepreneurial spirit—people with both down-to-earth drive and strategic foresight—can truly grasp innovation opportunities and capture the dividends of the times.

At the same time, people often say that a company is a mirror of its entrepreneur. What kind of person an entrepreneur is, determines what kind of form the company grows into.

Today, Vatti has the hard-core qualities of a “torch-holder specialist”: holding 4,939 national-level patents and demonstrating innovation strength with long-term R&D investment that remains among the industry leaders. It also has the youth-cutting influence of “fashion-science kitchen appliances,” along with the brand strength of being among the top-tier industry leaders alongside Midea and Robam Electric. All of these are closely tied to Pan Yejing’s personal traits.

In a market where trends keep rotating and concepts keep emerging, entrepreneurs who manage to cross cycles and withstand pain are often not only quick at sensing opportunities—they also insist on their original intent. In both good times and bad times, they stay committed to doing difficult yet correct things, shouldering the responsibility of leading industrial upgrading.

In interviews, Pan Yejing repeatedly emphasized “focusing wholeheartedly on making kitchen appliances deeper, finer, and more thorough.”

His career in real industry is the true interpretation of these words. In the eyes of this person who longs to raise a national kitchen appliance brand flag, we can see new directions and new blueprints for industrial development.