By Craig Zammit 

HONG KONG: Haier Electronics has been awarded the 2006 Brand of the Year Award at the World Executive Summit 2006, organised by World Brand Lab, World Executive Weekly and Mundell, held in Hong Kong.

Haier CEO, Zhang Ruimin, was also honored, receiving the title of the 2006 World Executive, while the Haier Group was ranked among the 2006 Best Employers In China and 2006 China’s Most Influential Brands.
 
“Haier Australia is proud to be part of a company that continues to be recognised for outstanding excellence in its industry,” said Haier Australia marketing manager, Tony Gersback.

Looking to match the achievements of Haier in China, Gersback stated that Haier Australia “endeavours to surpass its already exceptional levels of achievement in 2007.”

Haier recently added the Narta group as its third retail partner, following existing agreements with Retravision and Harvey Norman, securing Haier products into Bing Lee stores in New South Wales, Clive Anthonys in Queensland, Warehouse Sales in Victoria and the publicly-listed company Clive Peeters which owns Rick Hart in Western Australia.

Haier also recently acquired Thailand’s biggest refrigerator plant from Sanyo Electric Co., who saw the handover as a chance to revive profits and cut production costs.