One of the oldest German investors is leaving the Belarusian market
Robert Bosch, one of Germany's top 10 largest industrial conglomerates and one of the oldest and, until recently, most loyal foreign investors, is closing its business in Belarus. In its best years, the Belarusian market annually brought it up to $100 million in revenue. The best years for Robert Bosch in Belarus ended with the war in Ukraine and sanctions. And now, as Plan B. found out , Robert Bosch's Belarusian subsidiary, named "Robert Bosch", has filed for liquidation. The process started in late summer this year, drawing a line under more than 30 years of the German group's operations in Belarus.
Photo: vecteezy.com
With screwdrivers and a love for the state sector
The industrial conglomerate Robert Bosch, which is among Germany's top 10 largest businesses by turnover and number of employees, appeared on the Belarusian market in the first wave of foreign investors. Almost simultaneously with "compatriots" from Commerzbank, Carl Zeiss, Fielmann. Even before Lukashenka — in 1993.
The range of interests of the local "Robert Bosch" in Belarus covered several directions of the multi-profile group. Over thirty years, "Robert Bosch" created a network of approximately 80 franchised service centers for car maintenance and spare parts sales. Through dealers, the company established the sale of power tools, heating boilers, and home appliances. It attempted to localize the production of branded vacuum cleaners at the "Midea-Horizont" plant.
A significant part of the German group's total revenue on the Belarusian market was always generated by the state sector.
Robert Bosch supplied fuel, hydraulic, and other components to the assembly lines of the Minsk Motor Plant, MAZ, BelAZ, MTZ, Gomselmash, Amkodor, and other leading machine-building enterprises. Under state contracts, the company supplied a video surveillance system for the "Minsk-Passazhirsky" railway station and a arena surface system for the Belarusian State Circus, and also equipped ice hockey stadiums for the 2014 Minsk World Championship.
Without prospects?
In 2022, Robert Bosch's management announced that it was stopping deliveries not only to Russia but also to Belarus. Later, the Germans also demanded that local franchisees dismantle branded signs and logos, threatening financial claims.
The Robert Bosch subsidiary, as one of the GDP-forming productions of an unfriendly country, logically fell into the Belarusian black list, which prohibits such owners from selling local assets.
More than 1,800 other legal entities were also included. But from the first pre-Lukashenka wave of investors, Robert Bosch is, in fact, one of the last to decide to put an end to official communications with local clients. The Belarusian market has already been left by Carl Zeiss, Fielmann, and Commerzbank.
No official statements have been made regarding Robert Bosch's departure from Belarus. It is unlikely that they will be made. And it is unlikely that, if they are made, references to the war in Ukraine four years later will be appropriate.
Rather, the departure is the company's experts' assessment of the prospects of the Belarusian market.
And these prospects are such that there is no longer a place for Robert Bosch and other Western businesses. Everything — from washing machines to rotary hammers — is occupied by Chinese corporations. The same thing is happening everywhere as, for example, in the automotive market.
One of Robert Bosch's most important clients (both on the assembly line and in the secondary market) Volkswagen Group was a leader in new car deliveries to Belarus for almost twenty years. By the end of 2024, VW even dropped out of the top 10.
Among the "Westerners" last year, only Audi remained (in 7th place) — another Robert Bosch client. And there is a very high probability that we will no longer see this manufacturer there by the end of the current year.
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