Olympic Group

Last updated
Olympic Group
Company typeCorporation
IndustryElectronic devices & components
Founded1920
Headquarters,
Key people
Samer Sallam
(Chairman)
Number of employees
more than 5000
Website www.olympicgroup.com

Olympic Group is an Egyptian group of companies operating mainly in the field of domestic appliances. The main products it manufactures are washing machines, refrigerators, electric water heaters and gas cookers. It also operates in the fields of IT and real estate. It owns the licensing rights for Sony products in Egypt. Olympic Group has acquired "IDEAL", a formerly state-owned appliances giant.

Contents

Major shareholders are the "Sallam" family whose father founded the company.

History

Olympic Group traces its roots back to the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1930s, Olympic Group's founder, Abdallah Sallam started a manufacturing and trading operation selling radios, small appliances and producing electric transformers. By 1950, his enterprise expanded into retail operations with the establishment of a chain of stores, “Shaher”, specialized in consumer financing. “Shaher” remained amongst the best performing retailers of household appliances in Egypt until it was nationalized in 1963.

The manufacturing arm of Sallam's operations continued in the form of a new venture, Cairo Light Industries. In the early 1970s, it introduced the first locally produced electric water heaters under the brand name Olympic Electric. This product provided an alternative to the gas water heaters that were popular at the time. It also capitalized on emerging consumer demand for electrical appliances and affordable electrical energy prices as a result of government subsidies.

In 1975, EPA was established as the main trading arm of the group, handling marketing, distribution and after-sales services for all Olympic brand products.

Dr Saad Sallam, the oldest son of the founder, returned to Egypt in 1978 after receiving a Ph.D. in engineering from McMaster University in Ontario and became in charge of running the business, assisted by younger brothers Niazy Sallam, who looked after the trading side and Nabil Sallam who was responsible for the production side of the business.

To accommodate growth and complexity of operations, Olympic Group was established in 1995 as a holding company for subsidiaries engaged in manufacturing and trading of household appliances and related industries.

In 1998, the group enhanced its position in the white goods market with the acquisition of IDEAL, the largest public sector manufacturer of white goods in Egypt. IDEAL, which was established in the 1920s, complemented the Group's product range with refrigerators and washing machines.

Between 1997 and 2004 the group went through restructuring measures and investment projects that aimed at:

Today, the group claims to be the market leader in household appliances in Egypt. [1]

Activities

More than 98% of the products sold by the group are manufactured in their own production facilities.

The main products manufactured by Olympic Group are automatic washing machines, refrigerators, electric water heaters and gas cookers. Other products include fans, oil-filled radiators, exhaust fans, manual washing machines and coolers.

Olympic Group's key international partners, suppliers and licensors include the world's second-largest appliance manufacturer – Electrolux (Zanussi), the Korean giant Daewoo, the leading Dutch manufacturer Philips, the Turkish conglomerate KOC group and Merloni International Group “ARISTON and Indesit”.

Ninety percent of the group's products are introduced into the market through Olympic Group's wholly owned wholesale trader, EPA, which is the largest white goods trader in Egypt. EPA has 12 branches and a network of 1600 dealers and distributors.

The other trading arm of the Group, B-Tech, handles retail operations, with a focus on consumer credit sales. B-Tech was established in 1997 under the trading name “Olympic Stores”. Today B-Tech operates 42 outlets located at commercial centers in Cairo and other provinces within Egypt. In addition, EPA operates 16 Ideal and Olympic Electric retail outlets and 11 franchise retail outlets.

The core activities of the company are supported with after-sales service network, comprising 25 service centers spread throughout the country. [2]

Contract with P&G

Olympic Group signed a contract with Procter and Gamble for distributing Braun products in Egypt in December 2006.

October 11, 2010- Sweden's Electrolux (ELUXb.ST) has agreed in principle to buy Egypt's Olympic Group (OLGR.CA), the biggest appliance maker in the Middle East and North Africa, in a push to capture growth in emerging markets.

September 18, 2011. Workers started their sit-in, demanding 1 percent of the value of the factory after 52 percent of the factory was sold to Swedish owners. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major appliance</span> Large machine which accomplishes routine housekeeping

A major appliance, also known as a large domestic appliance or large electric appliance or simply a large appliance, large domestic, or large electric, is a non-portable or semi-portable machine used for routine housekeeping tasks such as cooking, washing laundry, or food preservation. Such appliances are sometimes collectively known as white goods, as the products were traditionally white in colour, although a variety of colours are now available. An appliance is different from a plumbing fixture because it uses electricity or fuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home appliance</span> Machine for household uses

A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrolux</span> Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer

Electrolux AB is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haier</span> Chinese multinational consumer electronics and home appliance company

Haier Group Corporation is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, dryers, microwave ovens, mobile phones, computers, and televisions. The home appliances business, namely Haier Smart Home, has seven global brands – Haier, Casarte, Leader, GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, Aqua and Candy.

Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux.

White-Westinghouse is an American home appliance brand used under license by trademark owner Westinghouse Licensing Corporation. It was created in 1975 when White Consolidated Industries bought the Westinghouse Electric Corporation's major appliance business. White Consolidated Industries was in turn acquired by Electrolux in 1986.

Kelvinator was an American home appliance manufacturer and a line of domestic refrigerators that was the namesake of the company. Although as a company it is now defunct, the name still exists as a brand name owned by Electrolux AB. It takes its name from William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who developed the concept of absolute zero and for whom the Kelvin temperature scale is named. The name was thought appropriate for a company that manufactured ice-boxes and refrigerators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miele</span> German home appliance manufacturer

Miele is a German manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances and commercial equipment, headquartered in Gütersloh, Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The company was founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann, and has always been a family-owned and family-run company.

Hotpoint is a brand of domestic appliances. Ownership of the brand is split between American company Whirlpool, which has the rights in Europe, Chinese company Haier, which has the rights in the Americas and Turkish company Arcelik which has rights in Russia and the CIS.

Arçelik A.Ş. is a Turkish multinational household appliances manufacturer which owns Beko and Grundig.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd is a major appliance manufacturer founded in 1934. It is a subsidiary of Chinese multinational home appliances company Haier and is based in East Tāmaki, New Zealand.

Hisense Group is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Televisions are the main products of Hisense, and it is the largest TV manufacturer in China by market share since 2004. Hisense is also an OEM, so some of its products are sold to other companies and carry brand names not related to Hisense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GE Appliances</span> Brand of appliance, owned by Haier and KKR

GE Appliances is an American home appliance manufacturer based in Louisville, Kentucky. It has been majority owned by Chinese multinational home appliances company Haier since 2016. It is one of the largest appliance companies in the United States and manufactures appliances under several brands, including GE, GE Profile, Café, Monogram, Haier and Hotpoint. The company also owns FirstBuild, a co-creation community and micro-factory on the University of Louisville's campus in Louisville, Kentucky. Another FirstBuild location is in South Korea, and a FirstBuild location in India opened its doors in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitsos</span> Company

Pitsos A.E. (Πίτσος) was founded in Athens in 1865 and began as a company manufacturing small household appliances and oil heaters. In 1959 it began production of fridges in a new factory; it soon invested heavily on the development and production of a wide range of modern home appliances, including TV sets. Other metal structures, including 3-wheel pickup trucks were also produced. In 1976 it was bought by Bosch-Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH. In 1996 was rebranded to "BSH A.B.E. Ikiakon Syskeyon". Many people at that time thought that Bosch Siemens and Pitsos were called BSP, wrongly.Gaggenau and Neff joined the group in 1998 and 2002 respectively. The company was rebranded to "BSH Home Appliances". It then boasted a leading position in the Greek household appliances market with a market share of approximately 40%. Its revenue reached €308 Million in 2005. Approximately one third of the total revenue came from exports mainly to Europe and the Middle East.

Eureka is an American home appliances brand owned by Chinese company Midea Group that manufactures vacuum cleaners, including uprights, cordless, canisters, sticks and handhelds. Eureka also manufactures aftermarket vacuum accessories, such as bags, belts and filters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fractional-horsepower motor</span>

A fractional-horsepower motor (FHP) is an electric motor with a rated output power of less than one horsepower (745.7 W). There is no defined minimum output, however, it is generally accepted that a motor with a frame size of less than 35mm square can be referred to as a 'micro-motor'.

Gorenje ; stylized as gorenje), is a Slovenian major appliance manufacturer, founded in 1950 by Ivan Atelšek. It is based in Velenje, Slovenia. It is the fourth largest manufacturer of household appliances in Europe. Appliances are sold under the company's own brands Gorenje, Asko, Mora, Atag, Pelgrim, Etna, Körting and Sidex, and are produced in the main production facility in Velenje as well as at the cooking appliances plant Mora Moravia in Mariánské Údolí and at the fridge-freezer plant in Valjevo (Serbia).

Electronic waste in Japan is a major environmental issue. Although Japan was one of the first countries to implement an electronic waste recycling program, it is still having serious issues. In this day and age, e-waste disposal has become of major importance due to the increasing demand for electronics on a worldwide scale. In 2013, the Japanese government reported that roughly 550 thousand tonnes of e-waste was collected and treated in Japan, which only equates to about 24-30% of total e-waste. Not only does e-waste harm the environment if untreated, it also becomes a fiscal loss due to the material lost that could have been salvaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midea Group</span> Chinese home appliance manufacturer and air conditioner OEM

Midea Group is a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Beijiao town, Shunde District, Foshan, Guangdong and listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. As of 2021, the firm employs approximately 150,000 people in China and overseas with 200 subsidiaries and over 60 overseas branches. Midea Group is listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2013. It has been listed on the Fortune Global 500 since July 2016. Midea produces lighting, water appliances, floor care, small kitchen appliances, laundry, large cooking appliances, and refrigeration appliances. It is the largest microwave oven manufacturer, and acts an OEM for many brands. It also has a long history in producing home and commercial products in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). It is the world's largest producer of robots and appliances.

Electra Consumer Products, stylized as ELECTRA CP, is an Israeli multi-industry public company which was founded in 1945. The company has divisions in the areas of electric consumer products, retail of electrical goods, food and beverages, sports and leisure, and real estate. Electra Consumer Products is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and is a constituent company of the TA-90 Index of top shares, trading under the ticker symbol ECP. The company is part of the Elco Group.

References

  1. Olympic Group
  2. Olympic Group
  3. "Teachers Call for a Million Man March Saturday" . Retrieved 21 September 2011.