The home appliance company Neba, from the Libson Industrial Group, announced an investment of $300 million and launched a new production line for electric ovens at its La Tablada plant in the Buenos Aires district of La Matanza.

Within the framework of the launch event, –in which the Secretaries of Industry, Ariel Schale, and SMEs, Guillermo Merediz participated–, the company's executive director, Pablo Libson, stated that "the Group prioritizes the national industry with affordable prices and with quality and design products, manufactured both in the La Tablada plant and in the province of Catamarca."

“We set out to continue developing appliances that make people's lives easier and that allow us to continue growing in Argentina,” said Libson, who stressed: “We are making a strong commitment to growth to position ourselves as a comprehensive appliance brand in the country, announcing an investment of $300 million for a new line of electric ovens.”

In this sense, the businessman pointed out that "there are already 4,000 products on the market and our goal is to manufacture 120,000 a year, which will join the 70,000 machines, refrigerators and freezers that we already manufacture in Catamarca," and he announced that "a line of dryers and heaters will be added very soon, which is practically about to be placed on the market."

For his part, Schale stressed that the Government is “in every line of management defending this Argentina with the conviction that the great problems we face in our economic and social structure are solved with national production and Argentine work,” and he stressed that “that is the path and what moves us day by day.”

In turn, the Secretary of Production of La Matanza, Débora Giorgi, emphasized that these “$300 million that have been invested have generated new jobs and products of high national added value.”

Originally, the Neba company had a single plant located in the Catamarca town of El Pantanillo, with a staff of 46 people, which was closed during the last 6 months of 2019.

“The company was literally destroyed, it owed 6 fortnights, and half a bonus for 2019. We had to bring everyone up to date and we took charge,” said Libson.

He specified that Libson took possession of Neba “on January 2, 2020, on March 2 the first production units left and on the 17th the plant had to be closed again due to the pandemic.”

"And there we started again, like the phoenix. A lot of personnel fell. We started with just over 40 people, in a short time we were already at 70 and today we are at 140 in Catamarca, that is, we tripled the staff," explained Cristian Alfaro, commercial director of the Libson Group, during a tour of the plant.

Meanwhile, the production manager of the La Tablada plant, Julieta Quiroga, pointed out that “this new line of appliances, the development of ovens, is “very important,” because she noted that “it gives work to people from La Matanza.”

Neba has a staff of 260 people at the La Matanza plant, of which 50 are women.

"In the production of displays we had workers in the different production lines and after the incorporation of the appliance line, women were incorporated. They are in the production line. They are more dedicated, neat and we always try to incorporate women, give them the possibility to continue helping families and especially in these difficult times," said the industrial engineer in charge of all the plant's production.

With this investment, Neba finished the first batch of 5,000 new electric ovens that are added to the 70,000 annual units manufactured including refrigerators and freezers.

In this sense, the company reported that they expect to produce 10,000 ovens per month which, together with the production of refrigerators and freezers, dryers and heating lines, will increase participation in the medium consumption segments.

The Economist