Merloni Elettrodomestici S.p.A. (Viale A. Merloni 47, I-60044 Fabriano/Ancona), a white goods manufacturer with brands such as Ariston, Indesit and Scholtes, is expanding into Poland. An investment of ITL 80bn has been approved for 1998-99 to build a new plant in Poland for cooker manufacturing, which is a response to the growing demand from Eastern European markets and the need for increased production capacity within the group. The Polish 650,000 units/y plant will start production in mid-1999.

Merloni Elettrodomestici carries out injection moulding and sheet extrusion at its Italian Marischio plant, processing about 20,000 t/y of thermoplastics (mainly PS, ABS and PP). Plastic components for the plant in Poland will initially be sourced from Italy.