Speaking to Zimbabwean journalists at the Samsung Africa Forum in Cape Town where it was showcasing its new product range made using cutting edge technology, he said Samsung regarded Zimbabwe as one of its important markets.
A Samsung country office was opened in Zimbabwe last year and there is one Samsung official dealership in Bulawayo and three others in Harare.
“Zimbabwe has a huge market. It has a lot of potential. I once visited the country and there were empty shelves but it has a huge potential,” he said.

Another Samsung official said in a few years’ time, Zimbabwe would be among the company’s biggest markets on the continent.
He said the Samsung business in Africa was divided into three tiers — A, B and C.
Tiers A comprised South Africa,  Nigeria and Kenya which generate the largest business for Samsung. Tier B was made of medium income generating countries.
The official said Zimbabwe, currently in Tier C, might soon get into Tier A considering at one time it was the second largest economy in the Southern Africa

Development Community after South Africa.
Samsung country manager for Zimbabwe Mr Gavin Clare said Samsung had invested about $2,6 million since setting shop in Zimbabwe.
He said the company’s major products in Zimbabwe were television sets and refrigerators.
“We have the largest market share of side by side fridges in the country,” he said.

He said the major challenge facing Samsung in Zimbabwe were parallel imports, mostly from Dubai, with the introduction of a flight between Harare and Dubai by Emirates likely to exacerbate the problem.
He said while the parallel imports were genuine Samsung products, they did not carry a warranty as products bought in Zimbabwe.
Mr  Clare said the Samsung stores in the country had been well received by  customers.

He, however, bemoaned the high duty levied on electrical goods, which raised the prices of products on the local market.
Meanwhile, Mr Pak said Samsung was on track of achieving $10 billion annual sales in Africa by 2015.
Samsung’s turnover in Africa is pegged at about $5 billion.

“At the first Africa Forum, we announced our vision to grow our business in Africa to $10 billion by 2015.
“Today, we are on the right track namely as  the most valuable brand in Africa,” he said, addressing African journalists at the Samsung Africa Forum.
Mr Pak said to achieve its target, Samsung was driven by two initiatives — Built for Africa and Back to Business (B2B) Partnerships.

He said the electronics business faced two major challenges peculiar to Africa — affordability and quality.
“Often the products built for Africa must be superior to those for other markets because they require durability and efficiency to reduce electricity costs,” he said.
He said because of these challenges,  Samsung had developed research and development targeted for the African market.
He said three engineering academies had been opened in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria and were expected to train 10 000 engineers over the next four years.

The Samsung Africa Forum was started in 2010 to bring together the company with its partners on the African continent.
Previous forums have been held in Johannesburg and Kenya.

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