Electra Consumer Products, stylized as ELECTRA CP, is an Israeli multi-industry

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

which was founded in 1945. The company has divisions in the areas of electric consumer products, retail of electrical goods, food and beverages, sports and leisure, and real estate. Electra Consumer Products is traded on the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ), colloquially known as The Bursa, is the only public stock exchange in Israel and a public company itself, listed on its own exchange since August 1, 2019. It is regulated by the ''Securities Law (1968)'' a ...

and is a constituent company of the

TA-90 Index The TA-125 Index, typically referred to as the Tel Aviv 125 and formerly the TA-100 Index, is a stock market index of the 125 most highly market capitalisation, capitalised companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The index began on ...

of top shares, trading under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded Share (finance), shares of a particular stock or Security (finance), security on a particular stock exchange. Ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols ...

ECP. The company is part of the Elco Group.

History

Early history

Electra Consumer Products began as a small electrical appliances repair shop in 1945. The company also began to import irons, food mixers, electric whisks,

washing machines A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a machine designed to launder clothing. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water. Other ways of doing laundry include dry cleaning (which uses alternat ...

and

refrigerators A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external envir ...

. In 1954, the company began importing air conditioners made by the American company,

Emerson Electric Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The Fortune 500 company delivers a range of engineering services, manufactures industrial automation equipment, climate control systems, and p ...

, to Israel. In 1961 the company opened Israel's first air conditioning factory, where it began to the development and manufacture of air conditioning units including the first window-mounted air conditioning unit in the market, and the market's first split A/C (consisting of two units, one outdoor, one indoor). Around then the company also began importing Westinghouse and

Daikin is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Osaka. Daikin is the world's largest air conditioner manufacturer. History Daikin Industries Ltd was founded in 1924 as by Akira Yamada. In 1953, Daiflon or polychloro ...

air conditioning units. In 1973 the company moved to a new industrial area in

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

— just south of Tel Aviv and one of Israel's largest cities by population at the time — where it established a modern manufacturing plant over an area of 55

dunams A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

(5.5

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

, 13.6

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

). In 1991 Electra CP was acquired by

Elco Holdings Elco Ltd. is an international Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company was founded in 1949 by Alexander Salkind, and has been managed since its establishment by three generations of the Sa ...

Electra CP opened the first Shekem Electric store in 1995, the first of what become one of Israel's main electrical retail

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

21st century: retail expansion, moves into recycling and renewable energy solutions

Electra CP acquired Mahsanei Hashmal in 2007, the largest electrical products retail chain in Israel. The company went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

in 2010, listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In January 2017 Electra CP announced it had reached an agreement to buy the

Golan Telecom Golan Telecom () is a telecommunication provider and mobile network operator in Israel. It was founded in 2010 and offers a range of mobile phone, telecommunications and internet services to residential and business customers. In July 2011 the co ...

cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless network, wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called ''cells'', each served by at least one fixed-locatio ...

for ILS 350 million, and the deal was completed in April 2017. Electra CP sold Golan Telecom in August 2020 to Cellcom — one of the "big three" mobile operators in Israel — for a price of ILS 513 million in cash, making a capital gain of ILS 163 million. In 2017 Electra CP became the domestic market leader in air conditioning, with 42% share of the market. Electra Consumer Products was included in a list of the best 100 companies to work for in 2020, by the business ranking firm, CofaceBDI. In August 2020,

Calcalist ''Calcalist'' (, a Hebrew wordplay on ''The Economist'', from כלכלה, ''kalkala''; economics) is an Israeli daily business and economics newspaper and website. History and profile ''Calcalist'' was first published on 18 February 2008, and c ...

reported that Bosch and Electra CP were to set up a

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

manufacturing facility in Israel, in

Ashkelon Ashkelon ( ; , ; ) or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The modern city i ...

, investing US$29.6 million in the facility. The products manufactured in the facility will be distributed worldwide by Bosch, according to the report, with the companies expecting to control 10% of the European

heat pump A heat pump is a device that uses electricity to transfer heat from a colder place to a warmer place. Specifically, the heat pump transfers thermal energy using a heat pump and refrigeration cycle, cooling the cool space and warming the warm s ...

market within four years. In 2021 the company partnered with a

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

company AllRecycling to build the first recycling plant for Large Domestic Appliances, also known as heavy

electronic waste Electronic waste (or e-waste) describes discarded electrical or electronics, electronic devices. It is also commonly known as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or end-of-life (EOL) electronics. Used electronics which are destined ...

— such as refrigerators and air conditioners — in Israel, taking control of the entire value chain from production to recycling. The plant is planned to open in 2022, it will comply with European

CENELEC CENELEC (; ) is responsible for European standardization in the area of electrical engineering. Together with ETSI (telecommunications) and CEN (other technical areas), it forms the European system for technical standardization. Standards harmon ...

standards, and will have a capacity of approximately 30,000 tons per year. In March 2021 ECP moved into the duty free market under the brand Shekem Electric Duty Free, at

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew language, Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, i ...

. ECP Gained a foothold in the sports and leisure market in April 2021, acquiring SAAR Group and its three retail chains — 34 branches in total — under the Columbia Sportswear, Shvilim and Outsiders brands. In May 2021 ECP acquired the Yeinot Bitan Group and its 152 supermarkets, buying 50.05% (35.05% by ECP and 15% by its financial partner, Phoenix) of the shares for ILS 194 million, and gaining a large foothold in the

groceries A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

market. In October 2021 Electra Consumer Products signed a 20-year franchise agreement with the US-based international convenience store chain

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

to operate the brand in Israel, strengthening its position in the Food retail segment. The deal includes an option to extend the agreement for a further 50 years. In late 2021 Electra Consumer Products announced a move into

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

, having signed an agreement with

SolarEdge SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. is an Israeli company that developed a DC optimized inverter system. In 2023, SolarEdge became the most losing stock in the S&P 500 for the year, which resulted in its delisting from the index. On June 25th 2024, So ...

, under which a subsidiary company, Electra Solar, will sell SolarEdge's products for domestic solar setups in Israel, and having also acquired control of Solar Sensei, which represents US solar panel company

SunPower SunPower Corporation is an American provider of photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 b ...

in Israel, and imports, produces and distributes solar equipment such as

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s, converters, optimizers and

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

structural parts. In March 2022 the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the

Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...

supermarket brand, stating that the Yeinot Bitan and Mega brands will be discontinue, with their stores converted into Carrefour branches. Electra Consumer Products reached a market cap of ILS 4.5B market in January 2022.

Main divisions

Electric consumer products

The electric consumer products division is focused on the import, manufacturing, export, marketing, selling, distributing, and servicing of electrical appliances. The company imports, markets, and distributes appliances from global and local brands, including residential and commercial air conditioners,

systems,

white goods A major appliance is a non-portable or semi-portable machine used for routine housekeeping tasks such as cooking, washing laundry, or food preservation. Such appliances are sometimes collectively known as white goods, as the products were tradi ...

brown goods Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, communications, and recreation. Historically, these products were refer ...

, and small appliances. In addition, the company manufactures and purchases various types of climate-control systems for distribution in the domestic and foreign markets, through a manufacturing plant it operates in cooperation with Bosch. Electra CP is the market leader in Israel’s air conditioning sector with a market share of 42%, selling more than 300,000 units per annum, according to CofaceBDi.

Electric retail

The company operates the ''Mahsanei Hashmal'' and ''Shekem Electric'' electric consumer products retail chains, with a combined 70 branches nationwide in Israel.

Food

The company acquired 35.5% of the shares of Yeinot Bitan, in May 2021, making it the de facto controlling shareholder of this retail food chain. The chain operates 151 branches under the brands “Yeinot Bitan,” “Mega,” and “Shuk Mehadrin” across Israel, with total revenues of approximately NIS 3.3B in 2020. In 2022 the company announced an agreement to be the local partner for the

supermarket brand, and would replace its Yeinot Bitan and Mega branded stores with Carrefour branches. Since 2021 Electra Consumer Products has had a franchise agreement with the international convenience store chain

to operate the brand in Israel.

Sports and leisure

The company holds the concession in Israel for the global brand,

Columbia Sportswear The Columbia Sportswear Company is an American company that manufactures and distributes outerwear, sportswear, and footwear, as well as headgear, camping equipment, ski apparel, and outerwear accessories. It was founded in 1938 by Paul Lamf ...

, and operates a chain of 40 sports and leisure stores, under Columbia, Shvilim and Outsiders brands.

Real Estate

While not a core function of its business, the company maintains a retail estate division in order to identify and exploit opportunities for group use, in order to add value and contribute to the company's financial strength. The division's projects include a center of commerce and employment on the site of its air conditioning plant in western

, a deal which is reported by

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

to yield yielding the company a profit of ILS 60 million, and the purchase of land in

for a

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

jointly operated with Bosch and an associated technology park for climate systems.

Partnerships

Since its inception, a number of international brands have partnered with Electra Consumer Products:

Social Good

The Gershon Salkind Scholarship Fund

Electra Consumer Products together with other Elco subsidiaries allocates US$1 million annually to the Gershon Salkind Scholarship Fund to sponsor academic studies for outstanding candidates.

TechForGood partnership

In 2017, Electra CP established a partnership with ''TechForGood'', an organization that promotes the development of technology to solve social problems. The joint project focused on startups aiming to improve quality of life, in particular in the fields of

energy conservation Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less and better sources of energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavi ...

, the

Internet of Things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

and air conditioning and climate control systems.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Manufacturing companies of Israel Electronics companies of Israel Retail companies of Israel