Balay touts Spanish roots while manufacturing dishwashers in Turkey

Balay promotes Spanish products but assembles dishwashers in Turkey

Some brands sell themselves with their label. For decades, Balay has included Spain, Zaragoza, and national product in its advertising. The issue arises when you pick up a dishwasher in the store, read the box, and find something else: Made in Turkey. Next to it, a Siemens from the same group —BSH Hausgeräte— stated Germany. This sparked confusion: a Bosch bought as German was made in Spain, while a Balay sold as Spanish came from Turkey.

Bosch is made in Zaragoza, Balay in Turkey, and Siemens in Germany

The paradox has industrial logic. BSH groups Balay, Bosch, Siemens, and Neff under one umbrella, and the group's factories compete among themselves for each production line. According to explanations circulating online, the Turkish plant produces more cheaply, so it takes entire references. The result is a shocking map: the appliance sold as German comes from Aragon, and the one sold as Aragonese comes from Turkey. The label stopped indicating origin and started indicating marketing.

The phenomenon is not limited to dishwashers. A Balay washing machine bought weeks ago arrived with Made in Poland printed on the plate. Some claim certain references are generic bases assembled by Beko and rebranded with the current logo, a common practice in the sector. Turkey, they note, manufactures white-label brands for much of Europe.

The Zaragoza plant remains open but no longer makes dishwashers

Here is the part that breaks the simple narrative of total offshoring. The Aragonese factory did not close. It continues working daily, invests in R&D, maintains its own staff, and collaborates continuously with the University of Zaragoza. What changed is the product. Dishwashers stopped being manufactured there about five years ago, and induction hobs and ovens took their place, offering better margins than dishwashers.

In other words: there was no dismantling, only substitution. From within a supplier of the group, the decision is described as a move for profitability, not pure cost-cutting. This partly debunks the widespread idea—that everything goes abroad because labor is cheaper—and leaves a more uncomfortable picture: the plant that boasted of being Spanish still stands, but produces a different range.

After-sales service matters more than the country on the sticker

The conversation quickly shifted to what truly angers buyers: breakdowns and lack of response. Testimonies vary without agreement. A compact dishwasher dies after five years with no spare parts available. An entire Bosch kitchen undergoes multiple technician visits while a cheap Turkish fridge lasts without complaint. Conversely, someone calling about a broken chainsaw receives the machine collected and repaired in two days.

The emerging pattern does not depend on the flag. It depends on technical service and parts availability. Old appliances from brands that are no longer what they were—a 1990s AEG lasted more than 25 years; one after the group change did not reach five—illustrate, according to these testimonies, that quality drops not due to distant manufacturing, but due to decisions on how long the device should last.

Who pays for the national narrative?

The core issue is textbook: demand manufacturing in Spain, then buy at the price of those manufacturing in Turkey. Advertising for domestic brands and their collective bargaining agreements do not fully align. Some denounce that salaries have been frozen for a decade while the parent company records profits, with negotiations ongoing and temporary measures on the table. The factory remains in Zaragoza. The label, however, does not.

The analysis stalls right there: if production is decided by internal margins between plants of the same group, what remains of origin as a purchasing argument? The sticker answers. The wallet, less so.