Slovenia's Gorenje turns profitable in June, gets new orders until Oct

"Increased orders are good news for the company and its employees and are the result of a number of timely measures taken by the management to strengthen operations, adapt to the situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and improve business results," Gorenje said in a statement.

Despite the June profit, the company's performance in the first half of the year remained in the negative territory, as market conditions continued to be uncertain and volatile due to the economic consequences of the pandemic and the second wave of Covid-19, the company said.

Therefore, Gorenje will continue to implement all current measures aimed at strengthening of its business and responding quickly to the changes in the business environment amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Earlier this month, Gorenje said it started manufacturing dishwashers under the Hisense brand for the US market, which represents the first order from that market for products made in Slovenia under the Chinese brand.

In late April, Hisense Europe Group announced a series of crisis measures to mitigate revenue shortfalls, including redundancies in Gorenje's four companies in Slovenia.

However, considering the recently changed business circumstances in Gorenje, the management has decided it will be using soft methods to improve labour efficiency, the company said, without elaborating.

In May, Hisense Group said it will lay off 327 workers at its four plants in Slovenia, instead of initially planned 544, due to a sharp decline in orders and revenues because of the coronavirus epidemic. Back then, it announced that Gorenje is expected to report a 41 million euro ($47 million) loss for the first half of 2020.

Gorenje has several production sites located in Slovenia, Serbia and the Czech Republic. Around two-thirds of all employees are based in Slovenia.

Hisense acquired Gorenje in October 2018 when its unit Hisense Luxembourg Home Appliance Holding acquired a 95.42% stake in the Slovenian company by purchasing 998,417 Gorenje shares for 12 euro apiece.

($=0.878126 euro)