Electrolux

This article is about the appliance manufacturer. For other uses, see Electrolux (disambiguation).

AB Electrolux

Type	Public Aktiebolag
Traded as	OMX: ELUX B Grey Market: ELUXF
Industry	Appliances
Founded	1919
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Keith McLoughlin (President and CEO), Ronnie Leten (Chairman)
Products	Major appliances, Small appliances
Revenue	SEK 112.143 billion (2014)
Operating income	SEK 3.581 billion (2014)
Profit	SEK 2.242 billion (2014)
Total assets	SEK 85.688 billion (end 2014)
Total equity	SEK 16.468 billion (end 2014)
Number of employees	59,481 (2014)
Parent	Investor AB (13.6%)
Website	www.electrolux.com

AB Electrolux (commonly known as Electrolux) is a multinational appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. It is consistently ranked the world's second-largest appliance maker by units sold (after Whirlpool). Electrolux products sell under a variety of brand names (including its own), and are primarily major appliances and vacuum cleaners intended for consumer use. The company also makes appliances for professional use.

Electrolux has a primary listing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the OMX Stockholm 30 index.

History

The Autoluxlamp, a kerosene lamp manufactured by Lux and used in railway stations around the world in the early 20th century.

Electrolux originated from the merger of two Swedish companies, one an established manufacturer and the other a newer company founded by a former vacuum salesman who was a former employee of the former firm.

The different sections of the Electrolux refrigeration apparatus assembled by acetylene gas welding of AB Electrolux in Motala, 1947.

Electrolux's history is closely tied to the vacuum cleaner, but today it makes all major appliances.

Lux AB, incorporated in 1901 by Sven Carlson, was a Stockholm-based maker of large kerosene lamps for railway stations, based on an invention by David Kempe. In 1912 it had factories on the Lilla Essingen island in Stockholm and in Riga, then part of imperial Russia. As competitors started to make similar models and electric lighting started to compete with kerosene, Lux needed a new product and in 1912 started to manufacture electric vacuum cleaners.

The name changed to Elektrolux in 1919 when the company merged with Svenska Elektron AB (the spelling was changed to "Electrolux" in 1957). In 1918, the company had 400 employees.

Sales company to major manufacturer

By 1925, Electrolux added absorption refrigerators to its product line and other appliances soon followed: washing machines in 1951, dishwashers in 1959, and food service equipment in 1962, etc.

Mergers and acquisitions

Electrolux has frequently and regularly expanded through mergers and acquisitions. While Electrolux had bought several companies before the 1960s, that decade saw the beginnings of a new wave of M&A activity. The company bought ElektroHelios, Norwegian Elektra, Danish Atlas, Finnish Slev, and Flymo, et al., in the nine years from 1960 to 1969. This style of growth continued through the 1990s, seeing Electrolux purchase scores of companies including, for a time, Husqvarna.

Hans Werthén

Hans Werthén, a president and later Chairman of the Board, led the development of an increasingly decentralized Electrolux during the late 1960s — and was instrumental to its rapid growth.

Restructuring

While attempts to cut costs, centralise administration, and wring out economies of scale from Electrolux's operations were made in the 1960s and 1970s with the focus so firmly on growth, further company-wide restructuring efforts only began in the late 1990s.

A public company

Electrolux made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 1928 (it was delisted in 2010) and another on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1930.

Currently its shares trade on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Market and over-the-counter, too. Electrolux is an OMX Nordic 40 constituent stock.

2000 to present

In North America the Electrolux name was long-used by a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, Aerus LLC, originally established to sell Swedish Electrolux products. In 2000, Aerus transferred trademark rights back to the Electrolux Group. Aerus stopped using the Electrolux brand in 2004. Before 2000 Electrolux-made vacuums carried the Eureka brand name, and while Electrolux continued to make Eureka-branded vacuums after it regained the right to use its own brand, it also began selling Electrolux-branded vacuums, too. Electrolux USA customer service maintains a database of Electrolux-made vacuums and provides a link to Aerus in case an Electrolux-branded vacuum cleaner was made by Aerus.

Keith McLoughlin took over as President and CEO on January 1, 2011, and became the company's first non-Swedish chief executive.

In August 2011, Electrolux acquired the Chilean appliance manufacturer CTI from Sigdo Koppers, obtaining several brands with the purchase (including Fensa, Gafa, Mademsa and Somela).

Electrolux moved its North American headquarters from Augusta, Georgia, to Charlotte, North Carolina, in December 2009.

Attempted GE Appliances acquisition

On 8 September 2014, General Electric agreed to sell their Appliances unit to Electrolux for US$3.3 billion in cash.

The attempted Electrolux acquisition was the result of General Electric's nearly six-year-long plan to sell the Appliances division that included negotiations with Electrolux and other firms, such as Samsung and LG.

The deal would have combined Electrolux's existing primary US mainstream appliance brand, Frigidaire, with GE's stable of products, including the Monogram line of luxury appliances.

The transaction - which would have been the largest ever for Electrolux, the second-largest consumer appliance manufacturer after Whirlpool - would have nearly doubled Electrolux’s business in North America (the market that represented nearly 29% of Electrolux's revenue in 2013). The deal, which was pending U.S. regulatory approval and carried a US$175 million termination fee clause if Electrolux was unable to complete the acquisition, was expected to close in 2015.

As part of the deal, Electrolux agreed to continue using the GE Appliances brand names, such as the mainstream "GE" appliance marque, for a limited period, and also agreed to assume General Electric's 48.4% stake in Mabe, a Mexican appliance manufacturer.

On 7th December 2015, GE pulled out of the agreement, citing antitrust issues.

Eureka Zuum vacuum promotion in Canada

To release the Eureka Zuum in Canada, Electrolux hired Pilot PMR to launch the "LoveToVacuum" campaign in 2009, which encouraged Canadians to embrace vacuuming and housecleaning with v-cards (vacuum cards).

Electrolux vacuums in Britain

In the 1960s, Electrolux successfully marketed vacuum cleaners in Britain with the slogan, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux". In the United States, it was often assumed that the slogan was a brand blunder. As it was, however, the informal US meaning of the phrase was already well known by both the British populace and Electrolux's executives at the time, and Electrolux hoped the slogan, with its possible double entendre, would gain attention.

In the UK, Electrolux no longer brands their vacuum cleaner products with their own brand marque; rather, they use a plethora of other brands, such as Zanussi for more economy-oriented vacuums and AEG for premium ranges. The name "AEG" is all that is German about the brand since vacuum cleaner production is now solely in China. Electrolux has also manufactured floorcare products for John Lewis and offered its own vacuum cleaners to UK catalogues.

Australia refrigerator plant shutdown

In October 2013, Electrolux decided to close the last refrigerator manufacturing plant in Australia.

Brands

An Electrolux canister vacuum cleaner

Electrolux sells under a wide variety of brand names worldwide. Most of them were acquired through mergers and acquisitions and only do business in a single country or geographic area. The following is an incomplete list.

• AEG
• Arthur Martin-Electrolux
• Atlas
• Beam, Electrolux's central vacuum brand
• Castor
• Chef
• Corberó
• Dishlex brand sold in Australia
• Dito, professional food processing equipment
• Dometic, appliances for RV's, also uses the Electrolux logo
• Electrolux ICON, premium consumer appliance brand sold in the US
• Elektro Helios, manufacturer of consumer appliances for the Swedish market
• Electrolux Laundry Systems
• Electrolux Professional
• Eureka, American consumer vacuum cleaner brand
• Faure, French consumer appliance maker
• Fensa, Chilean consumer appliance brand, widely available in Latin America.
• Frigidaire, full range major appliance brand sold globally
• Gafa, Argentinean appliance manufacturer.
• Gibson, refrigerator and air conditioning manufacturer
• Juno-Electrolux, premium consumer kitchen appliance brand
• Kelvinator, commercial refrigerator and freezer brand sold in Australia and elsewhere
• King, Israeli kitchen appliance brand made by REX-Electrolux, an Italian Electrolux subsidiary.
• Lehel, consumer appliance brand sold in Hungary and elsewhere
• Mademsa, Chilean home appliance brand
• Marynen/Marijnen, consumer product brand sold in the Netherlands
• Molteni, professional stoves
• Olympic Group, home appliance brand
• Parkinson Cowan, cooking appliances
• Philco, former U.S. consumer electronics manufacturer, though brand name is also used separately by Philips Electronics
• Progress, vacuum cleaner brand sold throughout Europe
• Prosdócimo, refrigerator, fridge and air conditioning brand sold in Brazil
• REX-Electrolux, Italian appliance manufacturer
• Rosenlew, consumer product brand sold in Scandinavian countries
• Sanitaire, commercial product division of Eureka
• Simpson, consumer appliance brand sold in Australia
• Somela, Chilean home appliance brand, available throughout Latin America
• Tornado, vacuum cleaners and other consumer products
• Tappan, former U.S. appliance manufacturer
• Therma
• Tricity Bendix
• Volta, vacuum cleaner brand sold in Australia, Sweden and elsewhere
• Voss, premium consumer cooking appliance and equipment supplier in Denmark and elsewhere
• Wascator
• White-Westinghouse, former U.S. appliance manufacturer
• Zanker, consumer kitchen appliance brand sold in central Europe
• Zanussi, Italian appliance manufacturer that became part of Electrolux in 1984
• Zanussi Professional, professional kitchen equipment manufacturer
• Zoppas, consumer products brand sold in Italy

Please note:This list does not include brands such as Kenmore and John Lewis, which may sell Electrolux-produced appliances but are not owned by or affiliated with Electrolux. (Electrolux acts as an OEM for these brands.)

Notable products

Electrolux Assistent, 1940.

• 1919: The Lux vacuum is the first product Electrolux sells.
• 1925: D, Electrolux's first refrigerator, is an absorption model.
• 1937: Electrolux model 30 vacuum is unveiled.
• 1940: Assistent (Swedish spelling of assistant) , the company's only wartime consumer product, is a mixer/food processor.
• 1951: W 20, Electrolux's first home washing machine, is manufactured in post–World War II Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 1959: D 10, the company's first dishwasher, is a counter-top model nicknamed "round jar".
• 2001: Launch of the Electrolux Trilobite, a robotic vacuum cleaner.

Slogan

The company's current international slogan is "Thinking of you".

Controversy

In 2003 the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resolved a complaint that Muslim workers at the St. Cloud factory were not allowed a sufficient number of breaks to observe their daily prayers.

In 2010 and again in 2011 complaints against the company were filed by Muslim workers in Electrolux's plant in St. Cloud, Minnesota, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The 2010 complaint, that workers were not able to observe Ramadan, was resolved. The 2011 complaint stems from the 30-minute breaks agreed to in 2010 being later reduced to 20 minutes by Electrolux.

See also

• Constructor Group AS, an Electrolux subsidiary not involved in major appliance manufacture

External links

• Official website
• Official website
• American Electrolux - The Beginning, and the Early Years by Charles Richard Lester