Gorenje announces sale of Gorenje Tiki plant in Stara Pazova

Slovenian household appliances maker Gorenje has announced it would publish in the coming weeks a call for bids for its Serbian subsidiary Gorenje Tiki, which produces small water heaters.

The Velenje-based company, owned by Chinese Hisense, also intends to sell the Tiki brand along with the subsidiary, Slovenian news agency STA reports.

Announcing the sale of Stara Pazova plant on Friday (April 5, 2019), Gorenje stated that they expected several companies from Europe and USA that manufacture water heaters and air conditioners to be interested in the purchase.

The company said the sale of this part of their operations was a part of the strategy of alienating intangible assets and focusing on Gorenje's core activity adding that the process was in motion even before Hisense took over ownership of the company in June 2018.

The sale announcement comes after the parent company in Slovenia sold its Maribor-based waste management company Gorenje Surovina and its branches to Eko Surovina, a company which deals in waste management and is owned by the entrepreneur Izet Rastoder.

STA Press Agency reports that Gorenje tried selling Gorenje Tiki last year but that the process was hindered because of the Hisense take-over. Gorenje Tiki currently employs 30 workers in Slovenia and 520 in Serbia.

Gorenje moved the production of its small water heaters from Ljubljana municipality Siska to Serbia back in 2010. The Stara Pazova plant, with its development department located in Velenje, manufactures around half a million of units per year.

According to the Slovenian daily Delo, Gorenje Tiki owned 36,000 square metres of land in Siska, which it transferred to its parent company. The daily adds that Gorenje then sold three quarters of the land and that it was negotiating on selling the remaining land parcels.

Gorenje d.d. Velenje

Tiki doo Stara Pazova

Hisense Co., Ltd.

Gorenje surovina družba za predelavo odpadkov d.o.o.

Gorenje Velenje

Gorenje Tiki Stara Pazova

Hisense

Gorenje Surovina

Eko Surovina

Izet Rastoder

production of small water heaters