“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, January 23 (Reporter Guo Hui) After the market today (January 23), Stone Technology announced a pre-increase in 2023 results. According to preliminary estimates by the company's finance department, it is expected to achieve net profit of 2 billion yuan to 2.2 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 817 million yuan to 1,017 million yuan compared with the same period last year, and a year-on-year increase of 68.99% to 85.89%.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter noticed that the above performance data exceeded previous expectations recently given by institutions such as Open Source Securities, Huaan Securities, Fangzheng Securities, and CITIC Securities.

Since Q2 of 2023, Stone Technology's net profit scale in a single quarter has continuously broken through the highest in history, and net profit to mother in 2023 also reached the highest value since 2019.

In addition, according to Shitou Technology's estimates, it will achieve 1.8 billion yuan to 2 billion yuan in non-net profit deducted from the mother in 2023, an increase of 602 million yuan to 802 million yuan compared with the same period last year, and an increase of 50.29% to 66.98% over the previous year. (Note: None of the financial data relating to the above performance forecasts has been audited by certified public accountants)

Regarding the reason for the change in performance, Stone Technology said that in 2023, it benefited from rapid growth in overseas consumer demand, the company's product competitiveness further improved, and overseas revenue achieved relatively rapid growth. At the same time, with the launch of the company's various new products and further expansion of domestic and foreign markets, the product price range and channel layout were further improved, which promoted the company's business performance and profitability.

According to a research report released by CITIC Securities this month, the robot vacuum category in overseas markets was previously dominated by iRobot, but in recent years, iRobot products have been iterating slowly, and prices have no competitive advantage over similar products in China. Coupled with Amazon's delay in implementing its acquisition transactions, iRobot's operations were under pressure, and its revenue fell 29.4% in the first three quarters of 2023.

In addition, according to Euromonitor data, iRobot's offline sales market share in the US will still exceed 80% in 2023, and domestic brands still have plenty of room to replace. Among them, Stone Technology's monthly sales/sales market share in the US and Asia online channels in November 2023 has surpassed iRobot, ranking second in cumulative market share from January to November 2023. Since 2023, Stone Technology's business in Europe has begun to resume. The online share of the US business has rapidly increased, and breakthroughs have been achieved in offline channels. Analysts expect that overseas business will open up new growth space for the company.

In addition to robot vacuum products, Stone Technology is also creating a new growth curve through new category R&D expansion and sales market migration. For example, in terms of washing machine categories, the Stone Technology molecular sieve low temperature drying and washing all-in-one machine H1 was released and launched in the first half of 2023. The product has low temperature efficient drying performance comparable to that of independent dryers. According to Open Source Securities, the company's washing machine products have now been sold in Germany.