Maspion, U.S. firm tie up

Maspion, U.S. firm tie up

JAKARTA (JP): Household appliance producer Maspion Group has
established a strategic alliance in production and marketing with
American-based World Kitchen Inc., a Maspion Group executive said
on Monday.

Alim Markus, the president of Maspion Group, said in a
statement that World Kitchen would purchase the cooking
appliances produced by Maspion's subsidiary PT Maxim Maspion. The
subsidiary has an annual production capacity of 3.5 million units
of cooking appliances.

He said the group had spent some US$5.5 million to purchase
one of World Kitchen's five factories in Indonesia, from which
Maspion will produce Maxim products.

"We bought the factory a year ago through Maxim Maspion," Alim
said during the factory's opening.

World Kitchen chief executive officer Nat Stoddart said
through this cooperation Maspion would also wholly produce its
Revere cooking appliance, which, according to him, dominates the
U.S. cooking appliance market.

Stoddart said Maspion would also become the sole distributor
for several of World Kitchen's product lines in Indonesia.
(bkm/nur)