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)