Olympic Group

Olympic Group is an Egyptian group of companies operating mainly in the field of domestic appliances. The main products it manufactures are washing machines, refrigerators, electric water heaters and gas cookers. It also operates in the fields of IT and real estate. It owns the licensing rights for Sony products in Egypt. Olympic Group has acquired "IDEAL", a formerly state-owned appliances giant.

Major shareholders are the "Sallam" family whose father founded the company.

History

Olympic Group traces its roots back to the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1930s, Olympic Group’s founder, Abdallah Sallam started a manufacturing and trading operation selling radios, small appliances and producing electric transformers. By 1950, his enterprise expanded into retail operations with the establishment of a chain of stores, “Shaher”, specialized in consumer financing. “Shaher” remained amongst the best performing retailers of household appliances in Egypt until it was nationalized in 1963.

The manufacturing arm of Sallam’s operations continued in the form of a new venture, Cairo Light Industries. In the early 1970s, it introduced the first locally produced electric water heaters under the brand name Olympic Electric. This product provided an alternative to the gas water heaters that were popular at the time. It also capitalized on emerging consumer demand for electrical appliances and affordable electrical energy prices as a result of government subsidies.