Gorenje has launched the production of its first dishwashers under the Gorenje brand. This will extend the company’s offer of major home appliances, such as the innovative SmartFlex dishwashers, result of several years of development and of 8 million euro of investments that includes a new automated assembly line. To date, the Slovenian home appliance manufacturer only produced them under its premium brand Asko, following the shift of manufacturing operations from Sweden to Slovenia two years ago. Starting in May, the Velenje plant will also start producing Gorenje brand dishwashers. This new line will first be launched in the Slovenian market; in the second half of the year, it will be available internationally as well. By the end of the year, Gorenje are planning to make 40,000 appliances, or approximately 7,000 per month. According to the company, next year production output will be doubled and then further increased each year to reach 300,000 dishwashers per year by 2020 made in Velenje, of which one half will be marketed under the Gorenje brand. The Group allocated 2.7 percent of its total annual revenue to research and development of new products and aims to further increase this number, in accordance with its Strategic plan 2016-2020. Research and development of premium and innovative products being one of the pillars of their global growth strategy, Gorenje Group intends to double the sales in high-end appliance segment. Premium segment will therefore generate 30 percent of the Groups sales by 2020. In 2015 Gorenje Groups sales revenue amounted to 1,225 billion euro.
