IFA International 2019 Week-End Edition

HOME APPLIANCES / KITCHEN LIFESTYLE
ADVERTORIAL
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WE WILL FULLY
UTILISE ALL THE
RESOURCES TO DOUBLE
OUR EUROPEAN OPERATION
IN THE NEXT THREE TO
FIVE YEARS
Dr Lan Lin
Executive Vice President of
Hisense Group & Chairman of
Hisense International
HISENSE SETS NEW SIGHTS
FOR GORENJE
Hisense expands globally in production, R&D and product
range with Gorenje and ASKO
Less than a year ago, Gorenje became a part of the Hisense
Group. But what was the motivation for the move? We put
the question to Dr Lan Lin, Executive Vice President of
Hisense Group & Chairman of Hisense International.
It was a strategic move. Hisense
has been building the brand and the
company infrastructure worldwide
with Europe and North America
being the two most important
regions. In Europe, we are strong
in the West, with a factory and 5
subsidiaries. But we were relatively
weak in Eastern Europe, including
Russia. We also didn’t have any home
appliance factories locally. Thirdly,
Hisense has been strong on TV,
refrigeration and air conditioning,
but had no other kitchen appliances,
like ovens or dishwashers.
Combining Hisense’s European
operations with Gorenje’s strong
position in Eastern Europe, we have
a very strong operation covering
the entire continent, including East,
West, Nordic regions and Russia. We
now also have three big factories
that can produce most of the
appliances locally and the full knowhow,
patents and technology when it
comes to kitchen appliances.
What does it mean for the future of
the Gorenje and ASKO brands?
These brands are now, besides
Hisense and Toshiba, among our
global brands. Gorenje and ASKO
are very popular brands in Europe,
especially in Eastern Europe. Gorenje
in Europe is a mid to high level brand
so that’s another reason we brought
Gorenje in our Hisense group. We
have very ambitious plans for the
future. We are going to maintain
the manufacturing activities, expand
our Serbian factory and build a new
TV factory in Velenje, Slovenia. We
will fully utilise all the resources to
double our European operation in
the next three to five years.
With Gorenje, Hisense also acquired
several European production
locations. Are the two companies
going to be working together on
R&D? If so, how and where?
We’ll make our R&D bigger and
stronger by supporting our kitchen
appliances development globally. We
will use the existing 500 engineers to
focus on mid- to high level product
development, expanding the kitchen
R&D part to cover the R&D for
China, North America, and so on.
This R&D centre in Velenje, Slovenia,
is not going to be only for Europe.
In the future, it’s going to be the key
R&D centre for the global market.
Combined with our multimedia
R&D, which is located in Germany at
this moment, we will really benefit
from both. By combining the two
businesses we can jointly make our
purchasing power much bigger which
will further reduce the cost of our
product to improve our profitability.
Speaking of development – what
are the latest achievements you will
be showcasing at IFA 2019? For the
first time, you will be presenting
Hisense, Gorenje and ASKO brands
together.
Our booth will be bigger than the 3
brands’ booths combined when they
were separate. We will present some
of our new technologies on smart
home, home connectivity and IoT,
together with Gorenje’s well-known
design lines and innovative “Life
Simplified” home appliances and
the high-level range of appliances
marked with Scandinavian perfection
under the ASKO brand
» HALL 6.2 / STAND 201
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