You Can Rely On Defy
DEFY Appliances (Pty) Ltd is the largest manufacturer and distributor of major domestic appliances in southern Africa. DEFY has offered the consumer a full range of kitchen, laundry and small domestic appliances for over 114 years.
Established in 1905, Defy debuted, by manufacturing the very first electric stove in South Africa. In the last 80 years, the brand has further entrenched its footprint in South African households through the manufacture of durable goods such as gas ovens, washing machines, dryers and ovens. This has led to DEFY becoming the largest white goods manufacturer in the country while presenting the largest product range in South Africa.
In 2011, Defy was attained by leading Turkish home appliance group, Arçelik. Having operations in durable consumer goods industry with production, marketing and after-sales services, Arçelik offers products and services around the world with its 30,000 employees, has 20 factories, and is active in 145 countries. The Group turnover totalled $5.6-billion at the end of the 2018 financial year.
Defy operates three factories in South Africa:
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Jacobs Durban
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Ezakheni (Ladysmith)
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East London
The R121-million brownfield development at the plant in Jacobs, has recently been refurbished. The facility now includes an automated plant in order to manufacture top loader washing machines for both the local and export markets.
Defy South Africa CEO Evren Albas, Turkish holding company Arçelik Global chief technology officer Oguzhan Ozturk and Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies officiated at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in April 2019.
This event also celebrated Arçelik’s overall investment of over R1.2-billion at Defy’s three production plants in Durban, East London and Ezakheni. These plants are now at “world benchmark levelâ€, Albas said. All factories have been accredited in terms of ISO 9001-2009. Investment to date includes R210-million spent during 2018, with a further R200-million to be invested this year.
Davies welcomed the fact that a further development pipeline worth another R1-billion would be rolled out by Defy over the next five to seven years. He added that the South African government would work with the group to facilitate this development.