What They Say
Nikkei reports that Arçelik of Turkey has taken a 60% share in Hitachi’s overseas home appliances business for $300 million. The firm will use the investment to drive its business for appliances in most of Asia, including India, Southeast Asia and China.
What We Think
We don’t monitor the appliance business. However, Arçelik is a key Turkish enterprise that also owns the Beko TV business, which includes the Grundig brand. Beko also makes TVs for other brands. Of course, Hitachi has been getting out of consumer businesses for a long time as it shifts to heavy engineering and B2B. On the TV side, the company was a pioneer in adopting a branding model, sourcing products mainly from Turkey, and selling them using the Hitachi brand. The concept allowed a successful business using very low levels of staff and overheads. (BR)
