China’s prominent household appliances maker plan to setup base in Pakistan

BEIJING : TCL Corporation, one of China’s largest household appliance makers, plans to establish production bases in Pakistan, media report said.“We should invest more in international markets, from which we expect to reap a good return as TCL grows into a global brand,” Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Corporation, told China Daily.Besides, Pakistan, TC plans to set up its base in Russia and South America to widen its reach abroad as it sees significant benefits in overseas markets.The Shenzhen and Hong Kong-listed company, which has more than 300 sales agencies in 40 countries and regions, now has 20 overseas production bases including plants in Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.For the first half of this year, TCL’s sales volume in overseas markets reached 9.55 billion yuan ($1.46 billion), an increase of 49.97 percent compared with the same period last year and accounting for 41 percent of the company’s total revenue.
TCL mainly sells TV sets and mobile phones in overseas markets.
“Localized production is beneficial for our cost saving both on transportation and manpower,” said Liang Qichun, general manager of TCL Corporation.“Apart from production localization, more comprehensive cooperation with our distributors abroad is essential to our international expansion,” said Li, adding that the company will also invest more to improve brand awareness, which is still considered to be weaker than some famous South Korean and Japanese brands in overseas markets.
Next year, TCL and Eros Group, the company’s distributor in the Middle East market, will spend $500,000 on advertising TCL products in the Middle East. The distributor, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), predicted that TCL will control 10 percent of the UAE’s electronic appliance market in 2011, up from the current 3 percent.Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation said that in terms of technology, Chinese brands now equal their foreign counterparts – App