Turkish television equipment manufacturers control a substantial share of the European market. They already produce almost all important brands. At present, 55% of all television sets are made in Turkey, up from 25% in 2000. According to experts, this figure will continue to rise over the following years.

The Turkish market is dominated by three major players, Vestel Elektronik (Manisa / Turkey; www.vestel.com), Beko Elektronik AS (Beylikduzu, Istanbul / Turkey; www.bekoelektronik.com) and Profilo-Telra AS (Istanbul / Turkey; www.profilo-telra.com). They are established as the leading European manufacturers of television sets, selling colour televisions – in double-digit figures – to the EU countries. While all the Turkish players are active in the injection moulding sector, they are nonetheless largely dependent on imported components and orders from non-domestic manufacturers. This is due to the fact that in the past Asian manufacturers set up production in Turkey to circumvent EU anti-dumping measures.

Turkish companies purposely acquired a number of well-known consumer electronics brands and licences in an effort to upgrade the image of their own product range. The most recent example is the purchase of the traditional German brand Telefunken (Frankfurt; www.telefunken.com) by Profilo-Telra, which also bought the last remaining assembly lines of another established German manufacturer, Grundig (Nuremberg; www.grundig.com). The Grundig brand name and all related expertise, however, was acquired by Beko and its partner Alba Radio Ltd (Barking / UK; www.albaplc.com) in 2004.

Vestel Elektronik, with nameplate capacity to produce 14m televisions and an actual production of about 8m sets in 2005, is rated as number one player in the European TV market. It belongs to the Vestel Holding, one of the largest companies in Turkey, which among other things specialises in consumer electronics such as DVD players, white goods and telecommunications equipment. In 2005, Vestel held a 26% share of the European market for television sets. From its facilities at Manisa near Izmir, it supplies JVC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sanyo and Sharp. In 2005, the holding with 11,000 employees posted sales of EUR 2.7 bn. In 2006, it planned to spend EUR 30m to build additional production facilities for dryers and dishwashers.

Beko is part of Koc Holding Durable Consumer Group, the largest commercial enterprise in Turkey, and is a sister company of Arcelic (Istanbul / Turkey; www.arcelikas.com). The country´s leading manufacturer of white goods, it employs nearly 4,000 people. In 2005, Beko, with production sites near Istanbul and research centres in Nuremberg, Izmir / Turkey and Yorkshire / UK, had a production capacity of 9m television sets and reported sales of almost EUR 1.2 bn. In Turkey, Beko is a distributor for Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony.

Profilo-Telra, part of the Profilo group, employs 2,100 people and produces for such household electronics names as Sony, Thomson and Philips. Using 36 injection moulding machines with a fully automated parts removal system it manufactures housings and switches and assembles these into finished devices on 22 assembly lines. In 2005, Profilo-Telra posted sales of USD 530m, up 50% on the result achieved in 2003. The company claims a 20% share of the Turkish market.