Home appliance brand Polaris enters the Middle East market

Home appliance brand Polaris plans to enter new markets, in particular the UAE and other countries in the Middle East. The company changed the contact details on the English website to Arvis, a Dubai registered address. Arvis has already applied for participation in European consumer electronics exhibitions and supplies Polaris equipment from China to Russia. Sources of Kommersant doubt that the company will be able to seriously expand in the Middle East, since its equipment does not correspond to the specifics of local demand. But the office in the UAE will help organize deliveries from China and sales in other countries.

“Kommersant” found on hh.ru a vacancy for a sales development director in the UAE and the Middle East, posted by the Russian brand of household and kitchen appliances Polaris. The head, according to the description, will have to deal with “bringing the company to new foreign markets.” The interlocutor of Kommersant, close to Polaris, clarifies that the company is only “assessing the prospects” for entering international markets: “Expectations for sales of equipment in the UAE and other countries have not yet been formulated.” Polaris declined to comment.

Trademarks associated with Polaris home appliances are owned by Swiss Astrata. Among their main licensees in Russia are Agey Electronics (sales revenue in 2022 – 9.8 billion rubles, net profit – 105.8 million rubles), Citiconsult (8.4 billion rubles and 145, 9 million rubles) and other LLCs owned by various individuals. Polaris production sites are located both in Russia and in Southeast Asia, said Anton Guskov, representative of the RATEK Association of Trade Companies and Commodity Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (it includes Polaris, Beko, Samsung, etc.).

The English-language site of Polaris, where the address and telephone number of the office in Moscow used to be posted, now contains the contacts of the Arvis company with a legal address in Dubai. According to archived copies of the site at the Wayback Machine, the change did not occur until June 3rd. The Arvis website contains information about the Polaris brand and its home appliances.

The legal entity of the brand – Arvis Business DMCC with the declared activity in the field of trade in household appliances and home accessories, has been registered in the Dubai Commodity and Raw Materials Center (one of the UAE SEZs) since 2016, follows from the register of residents of the zone. During 2022, the company supplied electric heaters and household electromechanical machines under the Polaris brand to Russia from China, follows from ImportGenius and NBD Data data analysis services. Arvis is also among the exhibitors at the IFA Berlin 2023 Consumer Electronics Show, which will be held in Germany in September.

Polaris appliances in the Russian Federation occupied a leading position in sales in the first half of 2023 in many categories of household appliances – in particular, in kettles, meat grinders and blenders, Alexey Pogudalov, commercial director of Holodilnik.ru, notes: “The growth in sales in rubles since the beginning of the year in almost all categories exceeded 50%.

Polaris plans to develop an office in the UAE to sell its equipment to other countries, Dmitry Shashkin, director of household appliances manufacturer Kuppersberg, suggests: “We have opened an office in Turkey for sales to Iran, Nigeria and other countries. But in case of problems with the supply of equipment from China to Turkey, we are ready to open an office in the UAE.”

An interlocutor of Kommersant among manufacturers of household appliances believes that the prospects for Polaris in the UAE itself are “minimal”, since the Arab markets are “too specific for Russian companies.”

“In the UAE, there is practically no middle price segment and no demand for such equipment. In such countries, either luxury-class equipment is purchased, or budgetary, for service personnel, ”the source of Kommersant explains, adding that Polaris can be attributed rather to the middle price segment of small household appliances.

The company maintains the work of its office in the UAE so that there are no problems with Chinese factories, another interlocutor of Kommersant among manufacturers of household appliances believes. “In the case of working with a legal entity from Dubai, they will not be charged with cooperation with Russian organizations.”

Yuri Litvinenko, Timofey Kornev