Turkey’s Vestel expands refrigerator capacity
Vestel established a new company, Vestel Digital Uretim AS, with TRY5 mn ($3.7 mn) paid-in capital. The entity will engage in digital product manufacturing at Vestel's production site in Manisa, Turkey. Details regarding the product mix have not yet been released. Vestel already has a digital product manufacturing facility in Izmir, which is in close proximity to the Manisa plant; hence, the new entity might be intended to support the Izmir facility, say domestic analysts. Meanwhile, according to local press reports, Vestel has received TRY135 mn ($98 mn) worth of investment incentive from the Turkish Treasury to build a 500k capacity refrigerator production facility. A capacity increase in refrigerator production was envisaged in the company's investment agenda for 2004 and 2005. Vestel stated earlier its intention to expand refrigerator capacity from 2 mn units to 3.5 mn units p.a. in 2005. The company targets to utilize this additional volume in exports sales and to cater to increasing its domestic market share with the recent extension of domestic campaign maturities to over 20 months.