Turkish company builds fridge plant in Thailand, eyes $500 million revenue in 3 years

BANGKOK

Koç Group’s Arçelik broke ground on a Thailand refrigerator plant late Jan. 6 with the goal of starting production by the end of the year.

“Within first three years after completing the investment, we aim to produce more than 800,000 units of refrigerators and post turnover of around $500 million from sales in ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries,” the company said in a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) Jan. 7.

The plant will be the Arçelik’s seventh foreign plant from 15 productions plants in total, the company said in a press release.

The new plant in Thailand has great potential to become a production hub in the region for the group’s Beko brand, said Koç Holding Chairman Mustafa V. Koç during the groundbreaking ceremony.

“With our innovative Beko brand, we have achieved very good results across the world and have high shares in leading competitive markets in Europe, including Germany, France and Britain,” he said.

The Beko brand is sold in over 100 countries, becoming the fastest growing home appliance brand in Europe over the last six months, said Arçelik General Manager Levent Çakıroğlu.

“Our Beko brand is now the second biggest white goods brand in Europe and the leader in the British market …The brand has also been the most rapidly growing brand in Germany’s home appliances market for the last five years. We see Thailand as a production hub through which we’ll write another success story in the ASEAN region this time as we have in Europe,” he added.

The company plans to export some 90 percent of its output in Thailand to neighboring countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, among others.

Arçelik will make around $100 million investment in the plant in the next three years by producing 800,000 units in the period in question to reach around $500 million in revenue, Çakıroğlu added.