Vendors report U.S. sales and share gains 

By Alan Wolf, YSN

European appliance makers Electrolux and BSH are in growth mode.

Shrugging off concerns about inflation and consumer confidence, the public companies separately delivered upbeat earnings reports pointing to sales and share gains in the U.S. and larger North American markets.

For Sweden’s Electrolux, net sales rose 2.2% in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023, with new product introductions contributing to higher sales and market share gains in North America. Earnings also improved on the continent, with the company citing success with its North America turnaround program and worldwide cost reduction efforts.

“I am pleased that the execution is going according to plan,” President/CEO Jonas Samuelson said of the initiatives in Electrolux’s Q1 earnings report. “The investments made in modularized product architectures and in highly automated and modern factories have laid the foundation to lift our performance [in North America]”, he said.

Similarly, BSH, the German makers of Bosch, Thermador and Gaggenau premium appliances, said it overcame supply bottlenecks and higher energy and material prices to post a 2.5% increase in 2022 net sales, to a record 15.9 billion euros. The results were led by a strong performance in the U.S. and Canada, where sales rocketed 16% on top of solid year-ago gains, setting the stage for what the company described as “high future prospects.”

Related: BrandSource Forges Closer Ties with Thermador

Broken out by product category, ACs showed the greatest gains, up 8.8% in shipments, followed dishwashers at 8% and cooking at 2.8%. The latter was impacted by a core model changeover, due out this spring, and the overall gains were partially offset by a 6% decline in laundry, BSH said.

CEO Matthias Metz added that the company will further boost its strength in the North American room air market when a new factory in Mexico goes online next year.

Earlier in the week Whirlpool also shared some first-quarter glad tidings with investors, including a 1-point share gain and a margin increase of 400 basis points in North America to 10% from Q4; cost reductions of upwards of $900 million; and a war chest of $1.4 billion in cash on hand. Looking ahead, Whirlpool reaffirmed its projections for approximately $19.4 billion in full-year net sales and touted the expected 2023 launch of a “next-generation” disposer with an induction motor, enhanced MultiGrind technology and SoundSeal noise reduction that “represents the most significant innovation in the last decade.”

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