AB Electrolux (commonly known as Electrolux) is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. 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.
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History
The company originates from a merger of two companies--Lux AB and Svenska Elektron AB, the former an established manufacturer and the latter a younger company founded by a former vacuum salesman who had also been an employee of the former firm. The origins of Electrolux are closely tied to the vacuum, but today it also makes major appliances.
Sales company to major manufacturer
In 1919, a Svenska Elektron AB acquisition, Elektromekaniska AB, became Elektrolux (the spelling was changed to Electrolux in 1957). It initially sold Lux branded vacuum cleaners in several European countries.
In 1923, the company acquired AB Arctic and subsequently added absorption refrigerators to its product line. Other appliances soon followed, including washing machines in 1951, dishwashers in 1959, and food service equipment in 1962.
Mergers and acquisitions
The company has often 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 Werthen
Hans Werthen, President and later Chairman of the Board, led the strategic core of an increasingly decentralized Electrolux--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. Electrolux is an OMX Nordic 40 constituent stock.
2000 to present
In North America, the Electrolux name was long used by vacuum cleaner manufacturer Aerus LLC, originally established to sell Swedish Electrolux products. In 2000, Aerus transferred trademark rights back to the Electrolux Group, and ceased using the Electrolux name in 2004.
Conversely, Electrolux-made vacuums carried the Eureka brand name, which Electrolux continued to use while also selling Electrolux branded vacuums after 2000. Electrolux USA customer service maintains a database of Electrolux made vacuums and provides a link to Aerus's website for the convenience of owners of Electrolux branded Aerus vacuums.
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 from Sigdo Koppers the Chilean appliance manufacturer CTI obtaining several brands with the purchase including: Fensa, Gafa, Mademsa and Somela. On February 6, 2017, Electrolux announced that it had agreed to acquire Anova Applied Electronics, Inc., the U.S. based provider of the Anova Precision Cooker.
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Notable products
- 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 for 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.
Brands
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
- Atlas[:da] (Denmark)
- Corberó (Spain)
- Dometic, appliances for RV's, also uses the Electrolux logo. Based in Sweden and owned by Dometic Group, itself owned by EQT Partners since 2011.
- Elektro Helios, manufacturer of consumer appliances for the Swedish market
- Faure, French consumer appliance maker
- Lehel, consumer appliance brand sold in Hungary and elsewhere
- Marynen/Marijnen, consumer product brand sold in the Netherlands
- Parkinson Cowan, cooking appliances (United Kingdom)
- Progress, vacuum cleaner brand sold throughout Europe
- REX-Electrolux, Italian appliance manufacturer
- Rosenlew, consumer product brand sold in Scandinavian countries
- Voss, premium consumer cooking appliance and equipment supplier in Denmark and elsewhere
- 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
- Dishlex brand sold in Australia
- Kelvinator, commercial refrigerator and freezer brand sold in Australia and elsewhere
- Simpson, consumer appliance brand sold in Australia
- Westinghouse, a kitchen appliance brand in Australia licensed from Westinghouse Electric Corp to Electrolux Home Products Pty Ltd.
- Anova Applied Electronics, Inc., provider of the Anova Precision Cooker
- Electrolux ICON, premium consumer appliance brand sold in the US
- Eureka, American consumer vacuum cleaner brand
- Frigidaire, major appliance manufacturer.
- Gibson, refrigerator and air conditioning manufacturer
- Philco, former U.S. consumer electronics and appliance manufacturer for appliances, though brand name is also used separately for electronics by Philips
- Sanitaire, commercial product division of Eureka
- Tappan, former U.S. appliance manufacturer
- White-Westinghouse, former U.S. appliance manufacturer
- Fensa, Chilean consumer appliance brand, widely available in Latin America.
- Gafa, Argentinean appliance manufacturer.
- Mademsa, Chilean home appliance brand
- Prosdócimo, refrigerator, fridge and air conditioning brand sold in Brazil
- Somela, Chilean home appliance brand, available throughout Latin America
- King, Israeli kitchen appliance brand made by REX-Electrolux, an Italian Electrolux subsidiary.
- Olympic Group, home appliance brand in Egypt
- Arthur Martin-Electrolux
- Beam, Electrolux's central vacuum brand
- Castor
- Chef
- Dito, professional food processing equipment
- Electrolux Laundry Systems
- Electrolux Professional
- Frigidaire, full range major appliance brand sold globally
- Juno-Electrolux, premium consumer kitchen appliance brand
- Molteni, professional stoves
- Tornado, vacuum cleaners and other consumer products
- Therma
- Tricity Bendix
- Volta, vacuum cleaner brand sold in Australia, Sweden and elsewhere
- Wascator, now under Electrolux Laundry Systems
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, as Electrolux acts as an OEM for these brands.
Slogan
The company's current international slogan is "Thinking of you". In the 1960s the company successfully marketed vacuums in the United Kingdom with the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".
In the United States, it was frequently assumed that using this slogan was a brand blunder. In fact, the informal American meaning of the word sucks was already well known at the time in the United Kingdom, and the company hoped the slogan, with its possible double entendre, would gain attention. In Indonesia, the Electrolux previous slogans as "Kalau saja semua seawet Electrolux".
Controversy
In September 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 August 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 complaint of 2010, that workers were not able to observe Ramadan, was resolved. The complaint of 2011 stems from the thirty minute breaks agreed to in 2010 being later reduced to twenty minutes by Electrolux.
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