Turkish home appliances giant sets sights on China amidst global recession fears

The CEO of Arcelik, one of the world's biggest home appliance makers, told Xinhua recently that China is a bright spot for business amid global recession fears and an increasingly gloomy market outlook.

Speaking of the present headwinds against the world economy, Hakan Bulgurlu said "we will have to go through a lot of pain before it gets better."

China, however, is "a little bit of a different picture," he said in a video interview with Xinhua.

Established in 1955, Arcelik is a Turkish multinational household appliances manufacturer headquartered in Istanbul. With 45,000 employees, its global operations include subsidiaries in 53 countries and 30 production facilities in nine countries.

Arcelik's domestic sales in China have grown by roughly 80 per cent in 2022.

"I find China one of the more promising places to be in the future. It has always been the factory of the world, and I think it will continue to be the factory of the world," said Bulgurlu.

"The world economy has significantly slowed down, and we are facing a recession on many fronts," said the Turkish businessman, who had lived in Hong Kong for 13 years.

Calling himself "a big fan" of China and Asia, Bulgurlu said he is optimistic about the business performance in the future Chinese market.

"I think the demand for appliances continues. We want to continue investing in China to actually bring our brands in," he said. "I actually admire China in the sense that when China makes a decision, it follows through very, very fast," Bulgurlu said

The international businessman also shared his view on environmental protection as he is going to attend the upcoming 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Summit scheduled for November 6-18 in Egypt.