A cooking stove designed for northern Africa
“I have a lot of responsibility in my job,” says Bassent Helmy, as she mixes turmeric and paprika powder with oil in a bowl to make a marinade. “Cooking with my family in the evening is a great way for me to unwind after a stressful day.”
The financial director lives with her family in El Shorouk, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. The city’s metro area is home to millions of people. Helmy moved into the new building with her husband and daughter around a year ago. “The large kitchen with plenty of space for cooking was the reason we chose this apartment,” the 50-year-old says with a smile, placing two skewers of marinated chicken in the oven.
The stove has two rotating spits that snap into the back wall of the oven, and it was precisely this function that persuaded her to buy BSH’s FS90 Range Cooker. With a capacity of 147 liters, the oven is large enough to cook up to four chickens at the same time. Black, with dark tinted glass and five large gas burners, the oven forms the centerpiece of the white high-gloss kitchen in Helmy’s home.
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Adapting to local needs
A unique gas-electric combination, in which the gas burner in the oven is supported by an electric heating ring, ensures even heat distribution in the oven. As Luis Alvarez, CEO of BSH Egypt, points out: “The oven saves time and energy, as it preheats around 40 percent faster than comparably sized appliances.” When talk turns to this product, the sense of pride in Alvarez and his team is palpable. “We developed the FS90 Range Cooker to give consumers the option of preparing multiple large meals. As a result, the oven is perfectly adapted to the way the locals cook,” he adds. Especially in households with several people, the oven makes it possible to prepare multiple dishes quickly and at the same time.
We developed the FS90 Range Cooker to give consumers the option of preparing multiple meals at the same time. That is important, given the way people cook in northern Africa.
BSH designed the appliance for the northern African market. The home appliance manufacturer took a special approach to development, pursuing a 360-degree strategy that involved interviewing 5,000 test subjects from the target group. Their cooking habits and expectations of a stove were examined in detail, and market analysis helped make it possible to develop an optimally adapted product. Since 2020, the stove has been produced in Turkey and exported to target markets such as Egypt.
But BSH has even bigger plans. On the one hand, the appliance, whose target groups are primarily the middle and upper classes, is undergoing constant optimization. “Through continuous observations in the field and consumer feedback, we ensure that potential improvements are identified, and incorporate them into our product development,” Alvarez says. For example, there will be field trials with real users in 2024. The introduction of the new generation of the FS90 Range Cooker is also planned for 2026.
Building on stoves
Moreover, production is set to commence within Egypt’s borders at the end of 2024. “The Egyptian and other northern African markets offer great business potential,” the technical director Mourad Gendy says. “So for us, it was only logical to produce the appliances for these markets locally in Egypt.” One of the main reasons for choosing Egypt was the supplier network there. Going forward, BSH will source as much as possible from local suppliers and build stable partnerships. In addition, brands such as Bosch and the “German Engineering” label are highly regarded by consumers in Egypt.
The BSH plant is being built in the Cairo-area community of Ramadan City. Covering an area of roughly 160,000 square meters, the location is expected to create more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. “BSH plans to produce up to 350,000 ovens per year locally,” Gendy says, when asked about the plant’s potential during a tour of the construction site. “We aim to export half the factory’s output to various countries in Africa and the Middle East.”
In the glaring midday sun, the outer walls of the production facility that have already been fitted with white cladding shine almost as brightly as the blue sky and the beige sand on the ground. The plant is currently under construction. All around the building and along the future assembly lines, activity continues at a hurried pace. While excavators and scissor lifts move around the site, construction workers with their hard hats swarm in and around the building, hammering, drilling, and mixing away.
The first production machinery will be delivered in early 2024, with the concrete work on all buildings to be completed by mid-June. Starting in November, the six versions of the FS90 Range Cooker stove will be produced here — from a chrome-plated model with a glass cover to the elegant black high-end model found in Helmy’s kitchen.
“I learned to cook from my father,” Helmy says. “I remember everything he taught me, and also that there was always a Bosch refrigerator in our kitchen. It lasted ‘forever’ and never broke down.” That is one of the reasons she opted for a Bosch stove. “To creatively combine elements of traditional and modern cuisine, I need a reliable stove,” she adds, emphasizing her satisfaction. For Helmy, the oven combines her roots and passion with the quality standards she now expects. For BSH, the FS90 Ranger Cooker and Egypt are the gateway to the African markets. By building its first factory on this continent, the company aims to achieve sustainable growth in the region — with stoves from and for northern Africa.
