Lipetsk Special Economic Zone Development
in developing markets. Merloni Elettrodomestici and Antonio Merloni accounted for
6% of the global market share which corresponds to 250 million products comprising
refrigerators, kitchens and washing machines.
The Russian company Stinol set up in 1990, had a plant with a surface of 100,000
square meters and produced about 700,000 units every year with a turnover
amounting to 100 million US Dollars. NKML was the only owner of Stinol and the
factory had been planned in 1989 by Merloni Progetti in Milan. It was built from
1990 to 1991 and started in 1993. Stinol was created to streamline the production of
steel coils in the third biggest siderurgical plant in the Soviet Union based on integral
cycle. This kombinat, built in the 30's, employed 40,000 workers in 2003 in
comparison to 6,000 workers employed by Stinol when this company was taken over
by Merloni in 2000.
Lipetsk, Stinol plant for the production of refrigerators
Source: Merloni Elettrodomestici spa Fabriano AN Italy, 2003
The plant is managed by Italian managers, together with some Russian “managerial
employees" while factory workers are local people. The cost of labour is lower than
in Italy and the level of productivity is lower, too. Labour quality has been growing
thanks to training courses organised both in Lipetsk and in Italy. This shows that
Merloni has not focused on the CIS to decrease costs, but the reason is the potential
of the market. The European Investment Bank EIB in 2001 reported that it was likely
for Merloni to invest around 60 million US Dollars in a period of 4 years to innovateView entire presentation