| Type | Publicly traded Aktiebolag |
|---|---|
| Traded as | OMX: ELUX B, NASDAQ: ELUXF |
| Industry | Manufacturing and service |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Key people | Marcus Wallenberg (Chairman), Keith McLoughlin (President and CEO) |
| Products | Home and major appliances |
| Revenue | SEK 106.33 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | SEK 5.430 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | SEK 3.997 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | SEK 73.52 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | SEK 20.61 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 51,540 (average, 2010)[1] |
| Website | www.electrolux.com |
The Electrolux Group is a Swedish[2] appliance maker.[3][4]
As of 2010 the 2nd largest home appliance manufacturer in the world after Whirlpool,[5] its products sell under a variety of brand names including its own and are primarily major appliances and vacuum cleaners.[6] The company also makes appliances for professional use.[4]
Forbes Magazine says Electrolux is one of the top 5 companies in consumer durable goods, worldwide, and named it to its list of 130 Global High Performers in 2010.[7]
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Formed from a 1918 cooperative agreement between sales company Svenska Elektron AB and kerosene lamp maker Lux AB,[8][9] Electrolux grew rapidly through mergers and acquisitions to become a world-class appliance manufacturer.
In 1919, a Svenska Elektron AB subsidiary, Elektromekaniska AB, became Elektrolux.[9] (the spelling was changed to Electrolux in 1957.[10]) It initially sold Lux-branded vacuum cleaners in several European countries.[9]
By 1925, the company had added absorption refrigerators to its product line[11][12] and other appliances soon followed: washing machines in 1951,[13] dishwashers in 1959,[13] food service equipment in 1962,[14] etc.
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.[14] This style of growth continued through the 1990s, seeing Electrolux purchase scores[15] of companies including, for a time, Husqvarna.[15][16]
Hans Werthén, a President and later Chairman of the Board, led the strategic core of an increasingly decentralised Electrolux—and was instrumental to its rapid growth[15]—from 1967[15] to 1991.[17]
While attempts to cut costs, centralise administration and wring out economies of scale from Electrolux's vast operations were made in the 1960s and 70s[14][15] with the focus so firmly on growth,[15] further company-wide restructuring efforts only began in the late 1990s.[17]
Electrolux made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 1928 (it was delisted in 2010[18]) and another on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1930.[12][19]
Currently its shares trade on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Market and over-the-counter on the main NASDAQ stock exchange, too.[20] Electrolux is a OMX Nordic 40 constituent stock.
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. Aerus stopped using the Electrolux brand in 2004.[21] 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.[22]
Keith McLoughlin took over as President and CEO on January 1, 2011, and became the company's first non-Swedish chief executive.
Electrolux is moving its North American headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. Electrolux's CEO says they chose Charlotte for a number of reasons. He mentioned the area's culture, sports scene, quality of life and workforce. A major factor was easy access to an international airport with an airline hub.
In the 1960s, the company successfully marketed vacuums in the United Kingdom with the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".[23]
Americans often assumed that using this slogan was a brand blunder. In fact, the informal US meaning of the word sucks was already well known in the UK at the time, and the company hoped the slogan, with its possible double entendre, would gain attention.[24]
The company's current slogan is "Thinking of you".[25]
Electrolux sells under a wide variety of brand names many of them specific to a single country or geographic area and most acquired through mergers and acquisitions. The following is an incomplete list.
1919: The Lux vacuum is the first product Electrolux sold.
1925: D, Electrolux's first refrigerator, is an absorption model.[12]
1940: Assistent, the company's only wartime consumer product,[19] is a mixer[50]/food processor.[51]
1951: W 20, Electrolux's first home washing machine, is manufactured in post-World War II Gothenburg, Sweden.[19]
1959: D 10, the company's first dishwasher, is a counter-top model nicknamed "round jar".[10][13]
1964: Luxomatic is a feature-filled vacuum cleaner that uses self-sealing paper dust bags.[14]
2001: Launch of the Electrolux Trilobite, a robot vacuum cleaner.[52]
2002: The Washy Talky, a 'talking' washing machine, goes on sale in India.[53][54]
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