Translations:Die Region Afrika/3/en
In 1996, BSH established a subsidiary in the South African city of Johannesburg, Gaggenau Southern Africa Ltd.[1] One year later, BSH Home Appliances Ltd. was officially founded in the megacity. South Africa is the biggest individual market in the southern half of the continent and therefore the base for expansion into other African markets.[2] BSH distributes the Bosch, Siemens, Balay and Gaggenau brands in South Africa. Branches in Cape Town and Durban followed later. In 2001, around 55,000 large appliances were sold in South Africa, with sales totaling around 24 million euros. By 2002, BSH Home Appliances employed 51 people in South Africa, working in sales, marketing, logistics and customer service. Since 2002, the company has been training its own technicians in a two-stage training course at the BSH Academy for Home Appliances (practice) and the state-run Germistion Technical College Johannesburg (theory) in a pilot project in South Africa. In the first year there were 150 applicants and 15 technicians were trained.[3]