Electronics company Hisense has made public its plans to open a washing machine manufacturing plant in South Africa by February 2021.

This will be the company’s second manufacturing plant in the continent, following the opening of a KES 2.2 Billion plant back in 2013 that is used to produce TVs and fridges. In 2019, Hisense added an additional production line that saw it start assembling smartphones in the Atlantis factory.

“Since launching washing machines in the country three years ago, Hisense has achieved a 12% market share in that segment,” the group said.

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The new factory, which will also be in Atlantis, north of Cape Town in South Africa, will add an additional 200 jobs into the country’s economy. Hisense says that they currently employ more than 800 people and reach over 3000 people through their outreach programmes that train and uplift the wellbeing of people in communities around South Africa.

In 2019, Hisense managed to put out more than 530,000 TVs and 331,000 fridges from their factory in the country. “In 2019, one in four TVs or fridges sold in South Africa was a Hisense,” said the company.

Hisense has also made significant inroads in Africa, with products also being exported to 13 other African countries, including Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Lesotho.