Slovenia's Gorenje to ramp up China expansion

Slovenian home appliance producer Gorenje is planning to increase its showrooms in China to around 200 by the end of this year to further expand its presence in the world's second-largest economy.

It now has over 140 showrooms in high-end department stores and home furnishing malls including Red Star Macalline, along with its online store at e-commerce platform Tmall, Larry Zhu, general manager of Gorenje China, said on Sunday.

Founded in 1950, Gorenje is one of the leading manufacturers of home appliances in Europe. It announced its entry into the Chinese market in 2019 after its acquisition by Chinese company Hisense in 2018.

Zhu said the company is one of the fastest-growing high-end home appliance brands in the country, registering compound annual growth of over 50 percent. "Hopefully our sales revenue this year can exceed 1 billion yuan ($145.22 million)," Zhu said.

He made the remarks when the brand was authorized on Sunday by the Slovenian embassy in China to promote the European country's culture.

"We will work with the Slovenian embassy to hold events that feature art and lifestyles through our showrooms to promote Slovenian culture and high-quality European way of life in China," Zhu said.

Bilateral trade between China and Slovenia stood at around 4.5 billion euros ($4.84 billion) in 2021, Slovenian ambassador Alenka Suhadolnik said.

She expects trade volume between the two countries to further grow in the post-COVID era. "Normal flow and exchanges can really boost trade and cooperation on both sides."