Singer to set up new facility with Tk 680cr investment

Singer Bangladesh, the country’s centenary-old home appliance manufacturer, says it will invest Tk 680 crore in a new facility to boost its manufacturing capacity.

The board has approved the budget for establishing a new manufacturing facility in order to increase its manufacturing capacity, said the company in a filing with the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday.

“The investment will be financed from internal sources and bank financing both foreign and local borrowing. The proposed manufacturing facilities would cater to the increasing local demand with a competitive price and would also contribute to the company’s growth,” it said.

Turkey-based Arçelik’s subsidiary Retail Holdings BV controls 57 percent of the shares of Singer Bangladesh, a household name for home appliances in Bangladesh.

On Thursday, its shares rose 1.67 per cent to Tk 170 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange following the news.

Its operating profit declined 20 per cent year-on-year to Tk 130 crore in 2021—the year hit by the pandemic. Net profit dipped 35 per cent to Tk 51.8 crore in 2021 from the previous year’s Tk 80 crore, according to its latest annual report.

The electronics and home appliance retailer reported Tk 1,581 crore in sales, up from Tk 1,495 crore during the period. “Sales opportunities lost due to the coronavirus pandemic at the start of the second quarter last year,” it said.

“There were, effectively no sales for 73 days in 2021 as the country-wide lockdowns declared by the government from time to time. Consequently, we missed the seasonal sales of summer, Eid-ul-fitr, and Eid-ul-Azha,” said Singer in the report.

Listed in 1993, Singer Bangladesh is the largest retailer of consumer durables, with 385 stores and 720 wholesale dealers in the country.

Currently, in competition with local player Walton for market leadership, Singer Bangladesh aims to get a boost from Arçelik’s production technology and know-how.

Founded in 1955, Arçelik Group has operations in the durable consumer goods industry with production, marketing, and after-sales services. Arçelik offers products and services in 146 countries with 30,000 employees, 21 different production facilities in eight countries—Turkey, Romania, Russia, China, South Africa, Thailand, Pakistan, and India.

In addition, it has 34 sales and marketing companies all over the world, and 12 brands—Arçelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, ElektraBregenz, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Dawlance, Voltas Beko, and Altus.

Arcelik manufactures more than 2.5 crore units of consumer durables per year in all their manufacturing bases worldwide.

In 2021, Singer Bangladesh opened manufacturing washing machines at its Savar plant with a capacity of producing 420,000 units per year.