June 16 (SeeNews) - China's Hisense Group has confirmed its decision to establish a TV set production plant in Slovenia's Velenje by the end of the year, with production expected to begin in January 2021, the group's Slovenian subsidiary Hisense Gorenje said.
The new TV sets under the Hisense brand will be manufactured in an existing production hall of Hisense Gorenje and will be intended for sale on the European market, the Velenje-based household appliances maker said in a statement on Monday.
The TV set plant will employ some 350 people, and will produce 1.5 million TV sets in the first year, with the annual output to gradually rise up to 4 million TV sets in the next stages of the investment, the company said.
The plant will offer employment to current Gorenje workers who are facing redundancy later this year, the statement reads.
In May, Hisense Group said it will lay off 327 workers at its four plants in Slovenia as a result of a sharp decline in orders and revenues due to the coronavirus outbreak. Hisense has said it expects that Gorenje will post a 41 million euro ($46 million) loss in the first half of 2020 due to the crisis.
The investment in a TV set manufacturing plant was announced after Hisense Luxembourg Home Appliance Holding, a member of Hisense Group, acquired a 95.42% stake in Gorenje in October 2018 by purchasing 998,417 Gorenje shares for 12 euro apiece.
Gorenje has several production sites located in Slovenia, Serbia and the Czech Republic. Around two-thirds of all employees are based in Slovenia.
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