Electrolux buying Anova?

[gfweb]

Connected cooking devices may sell for a while, but I'm skeptical that their appeal will last. Would anyone really start their crockpot from work?

 

Cooking at a distance is a neat trick, but is actually more complicated than regular stove top cooking. What advantages does it offer?  None that I can see.

 

I don't need my oven to be on-line (or hackable for that matter).

 

I think the Anova people got a good deal

[Porthos]

17 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

$250 million would be a pretty bright prospect for my future. They're accomplishing what I'd bet is the goal of 90% or more of all small independent inventors/manufacturers... to be bought out by a bigger company for serious money.

 

This is what I ws trying to say in my initial post but didn't state it, only implied it.

[quiet1]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Connected cooking devices may sell for a while, but I'm skeptical that their appeal will last. Would anyone really start their crockpot from work?

 

Cooking at a distance is a neat trick, but is actually more complicated than regular stove top cooking. What advantages does it offer?  None that I can see.

 

I don't need my oven to be on-line (or hackable for that matter).

 

I think the Anova people got a good deal

 

'The trouble with starting it from work is it has to sit out ready to go until then. That's what puts me off using the timed start function on things that have it. Someone needs to figure out how to keep the ingredients at a safe temp until cooking starts.

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

Connected cooking devices may sell for a while, but I'm skeptical that their appeal will last. Would anyone really start their crockpot from work?

 

And there's this.....when I quizzed my friends about home automation:

Wife:  Oh it's great!  We can turn up the heat or music or the lights

Husband:  Well, not the lights

Wife:  What do you mean, "not the lights"?

Husband:  Well, I forgot the password for the lightbulb.

 

[teonzo]

Seems like Electrolux is betting on the European market for Anova. Home sous vide cooking is almost unheard of here in Italy, I started to see a couple of mentions in forums/blogs in the last year, only mentions and not people talking about recipes. We are something like 10 years behind. Since Electrolux has a marketing power way bigger than Anova, I suppose they estimated they can make very good profits: Italy is a virgin market for home sous vide, they have the marketing presence, with Anova they have a winning appliance, if they can succeed in making it as popular as in the USA then money will flow in their wallets.

Don't know about other EU countries, but I suppose the situation will be similar.

The big problem for them is that we (as Italian population) tend to be thick headed and close minded when talking about culinary traditions. Italy and France can be difficult markets to conquer for sous vide.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[chromedome]

20 minutes ago, teonzo said:

The big problem for them is that we (as Italian population) tend to be thick headed and close minded when talking about culinary traditions. Italy and France can be difficult markets to conquer for sous vide.

 

 

 

Yup. The biggest obstacle for a new technique or method is an ingrained conviction that "hey, that just ain't right!"

 

Programmers like to joke that the only reason God was able to create the heavens and the earth in six days was that he didn't have an installed base of users. 

[rotuts]

E-Lux has a home Combi oven that's full sized.  

 

@pedroG  has one in Switzerland  :

 

 

he suggested the price was around 2 K USD.

 

a steal Id say, but can't get it here

 

Ive seen all the ovens at Yale , as its on the way to TJ's

 

the 

 

 Miele DGC6705XL (combi-steam) - $4,199

 

is a little bigger than the others  , but far from full sized  and way to expensive.

[paulraphael]

36 minutes ago, teonzo said:

The big problem for them is that we (as Italian population) tend to be thick headed and close minded when talking about culinary traditions. Italy and France can be difficult markets to conquer for sous vide.

 

I have great faith that one day Tuscan bread bakers will discover salt. 

Next step: sous vide!

[gfweb]

@rotuts If Yale Appliances store is as great as their stuff on the webs, it must be a great place.

[rotuts]

it is.  everything very very high end.  even faucets   etc.

 

here is blue Star :

 

http://www.yaleappliance.com/advanced-search.aspx?q=blue star

 

they don't have many w colors , but they have at least one example of each category.

 

even this one :

 

http://www.yaleappliance.com/Ranges/Blue-Star/Gas-RNB606GCBV2.aspx

 

nice , eh ?

[rustwood]

12 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

"Paying $115 million cash for Anova, which sells an immersion cooker that is linked through a smartphone to thousands of recipes, Electrolux hopes to leverage its direct sales business model and boost its own connected products business."

 

 

"Electrolux said it will pay an additional up to $135 million depending on the future performance of Anova and will establish a smart home solutions center in San Francisco to boost the development of connected products in other categories."

 

This makes a lot more sense to me.  Any way you slice it, this has to be good for the Anova founders.  There are a lot of unknowns in the deal though.  They may have debt.  If so, Electrolux may or may not be assuming it as part of the deal.  They may also have venture capital investors who are going to get a big piece of the pie.  The oven launch is probably going to require a lot of capital, but this deal should allow Anova to proceed without the founders having to risk everything on it.  If so, they may be doubly delighted that they can safely bank some of their gains right now.

 

Like @teonzo, others have speculated that Electrolux may be able to repeat Anova's success in many other markets around the world - especially if they can develop a series of connected appliances (and/or add smarts to existing Electrolux designs).  The strategy of developing Anova into "the" smart appliance brand seems consistent with the large contingency payments.

 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, chromedome said:

 

Yup. The biggest obstacle for a new technique or method is an ingrained conviction that "hey, that just ain't right!"

 

Programmers like to joke that the only reason God was able to create the heavens and the earth in six days was that he didn't have an installed base of users. 

And yet Italy was quick to adopt the much more expensive Thermomix.  According to its manufacturer's sales report Italy had the third largest sales in 2014. 

[teonzo]

6 hours ago, paulraphael said:

I have great faith that one day Tuscan bread bakers will discover salt. 

 

Don't hold your breath... It's easier that French people will stop eating baguettes.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

And yet Italy was quick to adopt the much more expensive Thermomix.  According to its manufacturer's sales report Italy had the third largest sales in 2014.

 

They used a peculiar marketing strategy for Italy. We are the only country where it's not named Thermomix (it sounds "scary" for Italians), here it is called Bimby ("bimbo" means "child", the Y at the end gives a touch of exotic without being scary). It was marketed as a tool that helped mothers to make food for their children. It caught the attention of the emancipated female generation (the generation where the majority of females work and are not housewives) because they are/were not used to cook anything, so when they heard stuff like "with this appliance cooking a risotto will be EASY!" they fell for it, without realizing that cooking a risotto in the Thermomix is not more difficult than cooking it the traditional way, it's just a bit more expensive. For some reason people who don't know to cook think that risotto is a really difficult dish and are scared by it. If you give a look at Bimby websites in Italy then you will be puzzled, they are full of crazy methods to do everything with this appliance. Most of the times it's just a big mess (time consuming and with lesser results), but people must justify to themselves that they spent a full salary for good. Asking to their grandmothers was too difficult (and painful, since it would end with a broken rolling pin on their head).

I'm not criticizing the Thermomix, it's a great machine if you know how to use it, I'd like to have one, but it's not the lifesaver for unexperienced home cooks.

 

I would say our market is pretty unpredictable. One would think that almost each family would have an ice-cream maker at home, since they are not that expensive (much less than a Thermomix) and we are probably the population that eats more ice-cream in the world. But in reality really few people have an ice-cream maker.

 

Slow cookers are really rare, of all the "new" (for us here) appliances I would say this is the easiest to use and more useful. Just put beans, stew, soup, whatever, it does all by itself, you just need to check after few hours without risks, what can you ask more? Oh yes, a Bimby, sorry.

 

ISI siphons are becoming more and more popular. I have a page on my blog where I explain the basics on how to use it, I'm always impressed by how many people visits it and ask questions. In my view this is a tool only for the food maniacs, not for the average home cook. Sous vide is much much more useful than a siphon. But since all chefs use it on TV then it must be great, who cares if you spend more for the gas cartridge than for the cream you are going to whip with it.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[weedy]

16 hours ago, gfweb said:

Connected cooking devices may sell for a while, but I'm skeptical that their appeal will last. Would anyone really start their crockpot from work?

 

Cooking at a distance is a neat trick, but is actually more complicated than regular stove top cooking. What advantages does it offer?  None that I can see.

 

 

I agree. 

it's a marketing fad.

 

but, like "low carbohydrate" diets, it's a popular, poorly conceived, fad.

 

at least on the Anova, unlike the Joule, I don't have to use a phone to control it.

 

 

[weedy]

I don't believe that Anova's success has been based on its "connected" aspect actually.

 

BEFORE that model existed, Serious Eats and others were praising the Anova and recommending it over rivals (Polyscience, Nomiku, Sansaire) based on it being a relatively well made, well functioning, immersion circulator at a reasonable price.

 

and the market of us, mostly non-professional but serious cooks who wanted to have a 'modernist' tool available, was there and probably is still growing.

 

I don't want a "new WIFI controlled Searzall" either.

it misses the POINT.

 

I mixed a lot of records into "Quad" back in the late 70's... because, it too, was the 'next big thing'.

 

 

[Anna N]

@teonzo

 

many thanks for your discussion on the Thermomix/Bimby in Italy.  I do not think the Italians are alone in trying to use the Thermomix in places where other methods are much more appropriate. I am the very lucky owner of a Thermomix that was a gift  and I often feel quite guilty that I do not use it nearly as much as I could and should.   However, and I hope this will make you smile, when Italian member, @Maureen B. Fant, said that she would occasionally grate Parmesan in her Thermomix, I immediately did the same. 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

14 minutes ago, weedy said:

I don't believe that Anova's success has been based on its "connected" aspect actually.

 

 

 

 

I know I don't currently rely on connectivity.  My Bluetooth is a joke since I can walk across the house to check on the Anova.  Wifi I would use more but don't want to spend more money for it after the fact.  The only thing I would want to know when away from home on a long cook is that the device is still running 

[Porthos]

I received an email from Anova today annoucing the sale.

[kayb]

19 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

"This is a space we are developing in and learning in and this is a way for us to accelerate that learning in terms of smart, connected devices," Electrolux CEO Jonas Samuelson said. 

 

And it appears they're hedging their bets.....

 

"Paying $115 million cash for Anova, which sells an immersion cooker that is linked through a smartphone to thousands of recipes, Electrolux hopes to leverage its direct sales business model  (emphasis mine) and boost its own connected products business."

 

"Electrolux said it will pay an additional up to $135 million depending on the future performance of Anova and will establish a smart home solutions center in San Francisco to boost the development of connected products in other categories."

 

Source: Electrolux buys Anova to tap into connected products growth

I suspect the dominant reason for the sale, beyond the previously-mentioned good quality and popular product that's beginning to gain name recognition, is what I've highlighted above. Retail is moving increasingly to direct sales -- if you have any investments in real estate that involve commercial property, I'd be looking to unload them. Latest figures I've seen show direct (read: online) sales growth to be about 10 times the growth rate of on-site sales.

 

Anova has a proven track record in direct, online sales. Being able to add to that platform any new devices they may develop, or marketing their existing products, is easier than building your own platform from scratch. 

 

Personally, I do not give a rat for connectivity in my Anova. My model has bluetooth capability, but I've never used it, and cannot imagine I'd have any use for the wifi function. As someone mentioned upthread, if they upgrade it to the point it can get the package out of the fridge or put it back in the fridge or freezer, I might feel differently.

 

[Martin Fisher]

52 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

 The only thing I would want to know when away from home on a long cook is that the device is still running 

 

Yeah.

And that's extremely easy to do with a webcam and Chrome Remote Desktop or the like.

[weedy]

11 minutes ago, Porthos said:

I received an email from Anova today annoucing the sale.

 yes, and it said, in part:

 

This is a big week for the Anova family, our loyal #anovafoodnerd community, and for the smart kitchen. Earlier this week, we announced that we will be acquired by Electrolux.

Anova will continue to have its own brand identity and we'll operate as an independent company. We'll run Anova like we've always run Anova - Our mission of helping people cook like a pro will just accelerate. We love being a part of people’s lives and this will give us a way to reach more lives, faster.

 

let's hope that remains true

[weedy]

57 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

... The only thing I would want to know when away from home on a long cook is that the device is still running 

 

and then you'd run home?

 

I don't even need to know that. if it really fails, I'm going to need to throw the food out anyway.

 

what I'd RATHER they spend development money on is it not failing

 

 

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Personally, I do not give a rat for connectivity in my Anova. My model has bluetooth capability, but I've never used it, and cannot imagine I'd have any use for the wifi function.

 

Same here regading bluetooth (my model) and wifi. I downloaded the smartphone app and have never used it.

[paulraphael]

1 hour ago, weedy said:

 

what I'd RATHER they spend development money on is it not failing

 

 

 

For sure, but there are a some failures beyond the manufacturer's control I'd like to be texted about. Like a power failure, or if too much water evaporates and causes the thing to shut down. Granted, the latter shouldn't ever happen, and the former poses some challenges (how's it going to text me if there's no power?)

 

But suppose the power goes off for an hour. The people at Anova said that they didn't include an auto-restart feature because it introduce all kids of danger and liability issues. So Why not get a text, some other notification? The food isn't ruined instantly. You have many hours to deal with a problem like this. Even if you're away for the weekend, you'd have enough time to have the cat sitter or a neighbor go in and reset the thing, or maybe you could do it remotely. 

 

This is the one class of remote feature that appeals to me. The rest? I don't see the utility. And circulators that only have a phone interface (Joule) would really annoy me. I can see having one as a second unit, or for travel, but I'm not excited about that interface for everyday use.

[scubadoo97]

2 hours ago, weedy said:

 

and then you'd run home?

what I'd RATHER they spend development money on is it not failing

 

 

That would be nice

 

I'm 6 min from my office so yeah if I could I would