Beko picks Thailand for first Asean plant

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Beko picks Thailand for first Asean plant
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- BEKO, Europe's second-best-selling home-appliance brand, yesterday announced that it had selected Thailand as the location of its first Asean production facility, with the plant going into operation by the end of this year.

The factory, for which the foundation-stone-laying ceremony was conducted on Tuesday, is on a 164-rai (26.2-hectare) plot at the Hemaraj Rayong Industrial Land estate.

It is being built with an investment of Bt3.2 billion and within three years will produce more than 500,000 refrigerators annually, with the potential to expand up to 2 million units a year.

Levent Cakiroglu, global CEO of Turkey-based Arcelik, the owner of the Beko brand, said: "We aim to replicate within the Asean Economic Community the phenomenal success of the Beko brand in Europe, where we are the best-selling home-appliance brand in the UK, the best-selling free-standing home-appliance brand in France, as well as the fastest-growing home-appliance brand in Germany during the last five years.

"Having a regional production facility in Thailand that can quickly respond to regional market needs is the key to achieving our growth plans in the AEC.

"We will export 90 per cent of our production. Within three years, we expect to export from Thailand a total of around Bt10 billion worth of Beko home appliances to almost 10 countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and generate sales of around Bt16 billion in the AEC and the region," he added.

"Since our launch in the Thai market in October last year, we have received a very positive response from Thai consumers and, as a result, we are targeting expansion of our distribution network in Thailand to reach 100 outlets within 2015," said the chief executive.

"We estimate sales in the AEC to be US$500 million in three years," said Cakiroglu.

Beko refrigerators and washing machines have been among the top three best-selling brands in their category in several major retail outlets in the Kingdom, including PowerBuy at Central Chidlom, Cakiroglu said.

Mustafa V Koc, chairman of Koc Holding - which ranks among the world's top 350 companies and is the parent company of Arcelik - said: "Beko is an unfolding, global success story that has been a phenomenon in Europe thanks to our ability to understand local needs and reliably fulfil them through high-quality products that are innovation-driven. Delivering on that commitment requires a global organisation that is staffed with the highest-calibre people, production facilities that are both flexible and state-of-the-art, and strong R&D capabilities.

"This triple combination of assets has enabled us to embed innovation into our products rapidly and win market share in even the world's most competitive home-appliance markets, such as Germany, France and the UK. We will bring this same approach to the AEC."

Koc Holding, headquartered in Istanbul, employs more than 80,000 people, with consolidated sales of around US$34 billion (about Bt1.12 trillion), 12,000 dealers, research and development centres across 22 locations, and has leading positions with strong competitive advantages in sectors such as energy, automotive and finance, in addition to consumer durables.

Koc added: "Southeast Asia is fast becoming one of the world's most important economic centres, and we believe Thailand has strong potential to be a manufacturing hub of this region."

He explained that Thailand had been selected as the regional production hub for Beko home appliances because of "the potential of the Thai economy, the existence of a strong network of supply industries, a geographically central location in the region, good infrastructure, the incentives offered by the Board of Investment, and, importantly, confidence in the Thai people".

"The Board of Investment's efficiency helped to accelerate our decision. We have put the plant on a fast-track construction and commissioning process and will bring it on-stream by the end of this year. It will be ready to ship our first exports in early 2016," said the group chairman.

The group has 14 production facilities around the world, with the Thai plant becoming the 15th.

Among these facilities are Europe's largest refrigerator and washing-machine manufacturing sites under one roof.

For the past five years, Arcelik has been in the list of the top 200 companies filing patent applications with the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

Beko and its sister home-appliance brands registered sales of about $5.8 billion in 2013 and employ around 25,000 people.

The washing-machine and refrigerator market in Thailand is worth around Bt28.5 billion.

In Asean, the washing-machine market is estimated to be worth some $1.65 billion, at 6.75 million units, and the refrigerator market to be worth about $2.5 billion, at 8.6 million units.

Market growth for these products in Asean this year is projected at 6-8 per cent.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Beko-picks-Thailand-for-first-Asean-plant-30251435.html


-- The Nation 2015-01-08

[rickirs]

Beko may have been enticed by a 10-year income tax exemption. Still it will provide for some semi-skilled jobs for Thais.