Turkish electronics and home appliances manufacturer Arcelik will introduce Arctic branded TV sets in Romania this week. It bought the brand in 2002 along with the refrigerator factory based in Gaesti.
The Turkish company, which also holds the Beko brand, is trying to take advantage of brand awareness of Arctic on the Romanian market, a strategy it has also used for other home appliances, such as washing machines, cookers and vacuum cleaners made in Turkey and sold under the Arctic brand in Romania.
The Turks are already present on the market for home TV sets with their Beko brand, which they plan to maintain on the market.
“The TV sets we will be selling in Romania under the Arctic brand are made in Turkey at the Beko Electronics factory. Our Beko TV sets will remain on the market,” Erhan Sayan, Arctic’s chief financial officer told Ziarul Financiar.
Like the washing machines or cookers before them, the Arctic-branded TV sets will be positioned as affordable products for consumers.
Arctic was one of the brands that (paradoxically) stood to gain from the decline in the domestic electronics and home appliances market this year. Most brands saw lower sales figures, especially those on the middle and high-end segments. However, Artic, which is a low-end product producer, took advantage of the situation and boosted its slice of the market in the refrigeration equipment, vacuum cleaner and cooker segment.
Arctic Gaesti’s chief financial officer did not care to reveal the exact sales or the market share the company is targeting with its new Arctic-branded product, but said the launch of the new product was part of Arcelik’s long-term strategy for Romania. “We want to be a permanent player on the Romanian market,” Saylan stated.
Whilst Arctic is the undisputed leader on the market for refrigeration equipment, a much fiercer battle is being fought in terms of TV sets. Philips, Samsung and Daewoo are competing with other Asian brands for the top spots. Several attempts to produce or assemble TV sets locally have been made in the course of time.
This is the case with ANA Electronic, which was the market leader in mid ’90s due to its locally assembled Samsung TVs. The same happened with Freedom Star and NEI, which used to do very well in terms of sales after 1989.
The Gaiesti-based plant of the Turkish Group is still producing refrigerators, most of which are exported under the different brands held by Arcelik.
The Turks have boosted the refrigerator plant’s production capacity on several occasions and hope to see output reach 1.2 million units by yearend.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro ; ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro