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Turkish Company Mulls Electronic Exports to Zimbabwe
[May 04, 2014]

Turkish Company Mulls Electronic Exports to Zimbabwe


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TURKISH consumer electronics and home appliances manufacturer, Vestel Group, plans to export to Zimbabwe as it expands its tentacles on the continent.

Vestel's executive committee chairman, Turan Erdogan said the planned exports into Zimbabwe was a response to the growing demand for consumer electronics and home appliances.

He said Zimbabwe had attracted a number of companies in the consumer electronics and home appliances business who have their products in the country, though he believed that "among all other companies Vestel was the perfect match to the needs of the consumers in Zimbabwe through its wide range of competitive and high-quality products".



The planned exports to Zimbabwe comes at a time established brands such as South Korean's Samsung, Japanese Sony and Dutch Philips products among others have established foothold on the local market capitalising on the use of the multicurrency regime which has aided the purchase of products.

In 2011, Samsung opened a retail shop for gadgets ranging from television sets to mobile phones.


Vestel has identified Zimbabwe alongside Butan, Micronesia, Brunei and Myanmar as new markets for its products.

Butan is a landlocked South Asian nation sharing borders with China and India. Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

Brunei is a South East Asian sovereign state. Also known as Myanmar, Burma is an East Asian nation.

However the Turkish manufacturer has advised government to remove the high customs tax which is a barrier to entry for Turkish produced home appliances and consumer electronics, according to executive committee chairman Turan Erdogan.

"Therefore, establishing a plant either in Zimbabwe or South Africa is an essential need to nourish the region. Offering clear and committed incentive plan to open a plant in Zimbabwe instead of anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the ways to support to manufacture product in Zimbabwe," he said.

Erdogan said on the African continent, Vestel was following OEM business strategy where it produces to customers' own registered brand or offer its registered brands for the related region.

"We do not have any active customers yet but we are making some research to establish long-term business cooperation with potential companies in Zimbabwe," he said.

Erdogan said Vestel's exporting experiences in African countries would be a great advantage for the Zimbabwean market.

"Once we start business in Zimbabwe, learning the country-related formalities in business will be easier," he said.

Vestel exports to 145 countries worldwide. Our electronic city, Vestel City, has the capacity to manufacture over 22 million products in a year.

It has a 20,3% market share of the European Liquid-crystal-display television (LCD-TV).

South Korean giant Samsung rules the roost in the European LCD-TV market, accounting for 32,1%.

Copyright Zimbabwe Standard. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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