Italian Candy Hoover Group's Turkey CEO Servet Akkaynak announced on Monday that the company is moving its production facility in China to Turkey.
The move, according to Akkaynak, is an indicator of the company's confidence in the Turkish economy and investment environment.
Akkaynak said Turkey is more advantageous than China because of its logistics advantages for the European continent, the Customs Union, a trained labor force and incentives provided by the government.
He added their group has full confidence in Turkey and the home appliances plant will be inaugurated in October.
The company executive said that the Candy Group made its first investment in Turkey by purchasing the Süsler stove factory in the Eskişehir Organized Industrial Zone in late 2006.
He stressed the fact that Turkey is the world's largest manufacturer of home appliances after China was an also underlying factor of making the move.
Akkaynak said they were moving their dishwasher plant from China and re-installing it in Turkey. He also recalled that the company has invested 70 million euros to date, including 25 million euros in research and development (R&D) centers.
"The R&D center of our cookware group which was commissioned in 2016 is the only R&D center of our group in the world, approved by the Science, Industry and Technology Ministry and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK). Two months ago, we built another R&D center in our dishwasher plant. These projects will continue," he added.
"Its most important indicator is that we carry a factory here from China. While everyone is investing in China, we move our factory to Turkey from there. Our investments will continue to increase," he continued. "We plan to make a new investment again in Turkey, of course in Eskişehir, for a washing machine factory."
Akkaynak expressed that the excise duty advantage of the home appliance sector should continue, but that it is important to consider the separation of the products here.
"Providing excise duty advantages for high-energy efficiency group products is the consensus of our sector," he concluded.
