The new manufacturing JV, Toshiba El Araby Visual Products Company, will be established this January in Cairo. The company has paid-in capital of US$10 million, and construction of its manufacturing facility is now under way. Production of LCD televisions is scheduled to start in March this year. The JV's activities will range from LCD panel module assembly to the production of finished products –
the first company in Egypt with this scope of production. The new plant will have an initial production capacity of 600,000 units a year, mainly 24 and 32-inch models, and an initial workforce of about 300. As sales grow, the plant's capacity will be increased, up to 2,000,000 units a year in FY2013. While launching the new manufacturing joint venture, El Araby and Toshiba will strengthen their existing marketing and sales collaboration, Toshiba El Araby Home Appliances Marketing Company, which currently handles Toshiba white goods, such as refrigerators and washing machines, from Egypt to African countries and rename it as Toshiba El Araby Visual & Appliances Marketing Company. The company will extend its product coverage to export Toshiba branded LCD TVs from Egypt to North African countries from March, 2011.
