Firms stung by trade war build domestic brands

Own product: Wu says Matsutek is putting in more effort to build and push its own brand of robot vacuum cleaners out to the market. — Reuters

FOR over a decade, manufacturer Matsutek plied away at building its business with big Western brands, supplying firms such as Philips and Honeywell with products made in its Chinese factories for the US and other overseas markets.

That strategy paid off, helping it grow into the world’s second-largest maker of robotic vacuum cleaners.