AB Electrolux

Type	Publicly traded Aktiebolag
Traded as	OMX: ELUX B, NASDAQ: ELUXF
Industry	Household appliances
Founded	1919
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Marcus Wallenberg (Chairman), Keith McLoughlin (President and CEO)
Products	Major and Small appliances
Revenue	SEK 101.60 billion (2011)[1]
Operating income	SEK 3.017 billion (2011)[1]
Profit	SEK 2.64 billion (2011)[1]
Total assets	SEK 76.384 billion (end 2011)[1]
Total equity	SEK 20.644 billion (end 2011)[1]
Employees	52,916 (average, 2011)[1]
Website	www.electrolux.com

AB Electrolux (commonly known as Electrolux) is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.^[2][3][4] It is the world's second-largest home appliance maker by 2010 market share (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]

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

History[link]

The origins of Electrolux date back to a 1918 cooperative agreement between sales company Svenska Elektron AB and kerosene lamp maker Lux AB.^[8][9]

Sales company to major manufacturer[link]

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. As well as appliances, the company also diversified during and after the Second World War into manufacture of steel fittings such as metal shelving (Electrolux Constructor - now Constructor Group AS).^[13]

Mergers and acquisitions[link]

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[link]

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]

Restructuring[link]

While attempts to cut costs, centralise administration and wring out economies of scale from Electrolux's operations were made in the 1960s and 1970s^[14][15] with the focus so firmly on growth,^[15] further company-wide restructuring efforts only began in the late 1990s.^[17]

A public company[link]

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.

North American trademark[link]

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]

Recent events[link]

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

Electrolux moved its North American headquarters from Augusta, GA to Charlotte, North Carolina, announcing it in December 2009. Electrolux's CEO said they chose Charlotte for a number of reasons. He mentioned the area's culture, quality of life and workforce. A major factor was easy access to an international airport with an airline hub.

Brands[link]

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.

• AEG, high quality German appliances.
• Arthur Martin-Electrolux
• Atlas
• Beam, Electrolux's central vacuum brand^[23]
• Castor
• Chef
• Corberó
• Dito, professional food processing equipment^[24]
• Electrolux ICON, consumer kitchen appliances sold in the US^[25]
• Elektro Helios, acquired in 1962,^[10] consumer appliances under this brand are sold in Sweden^[26]
• Electrolux Laundry Systems
• Electrolux Professional
• Eureka, consumer vacuum cleaners^[27]
• Faure, French consumer appliances^[28]
• Frigidaire, full range of major appliances sold in the United States and globally^[29]
• Gibson, refrigerators and air conditioning^[30]
• Juno-Electrolux, premium consumer kitchen appliances^[31]
• Kelvinator, commercial refrigerators and freezers^[32]
• King, kitchen appliances sold exclusively in Israel^{[citation needed]}
• Lehel, appliances sold in Hungary, etc.
• Marynen/Marijnen, consumer products sold in the Netherlands^[33]
• Molteni, professional stoves^[34]
• Olympic Group, all domestic appliances plus water heaters
• Parkinson Cowan, cooking appliances
• Philco
• Progress, vacuum cleaners sold in Germany and throughout Europe^[35]
• Prosdócimo, refrigerators, fridges and air conditioning sold in Brazil
• REX-Electrolux, appliances sold in Italy^[36]
• Rosenlew, consumer products in Finland and other Scandinavian countries^[37]
• Sanitaire
• Simpson, consumer appliances sold in Australia^[38]
• Tornado, vacuum cleaners and other consumer products^[39]
• Tappan
• Therma
• Tricity Bendix
• Volta, vacuums cleaners sold in Australia, Sweden and elsewhere^[40]
• Voss, premium consumer cooking appliances and equipment in Denmark and elsewhere^[41]
• Wascator
• Westinghouse
• White-Westinghouse
• Zanker, consumer kitchen appliances sold in central Europe^[42]
• Zanussi, became a part of Electrolux in 1984^[43]
• Zanussi Professional, professional food preparation, cooking, ventilation refrigeration and dishwashing equipment^[44]
• Zoppas, consumer products sold in Italy^[45]

Notable products[link]

1919: The Lux vacuum is the first product Electrolux sold.

1925: D, Electrolux's first refrigerator, is an absorption model.^[12]

1940: Assistant, the company's only wartime consumer product,^[19] is a mixer^[46]/food processor.^[47]

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.^[48]

2002: The Washy Talky, a 'talking' washing machine, goes on sale in India.^[49][50]

Slogan[link]

In the 1960s, the company successfully marketed vacuums in the United Kingdom with the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".^[51]

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.^[52]

The company's current slogan is "Thinking of you".^[53]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

Companies portal

v t e Electrolux Brands, divisions and subsidiaries Current AEG Electrolux Electrolux Laundry Systems Eureka Frigidaire Gibson Appliance Lehel Parkinson Cowan Philco Rosenlew Simpson Tappan White-Westinghouse Zanussi Former Diamant Boart1 Husqvarna1 White Consolidated Industries2 Products Electrolux Trilobite People Keith McLoughlin Marcus Wallenberg Other Electrolux Design Lab 1Sold or demerged 2Now integrated into other Electrolux divisions or subsidiaries Category

v t e OMX Stockholm 30 companies of Sweden ABB Alfa Laval Assa Abloy AstraZeneca Atlas Copco Boliden Electrolux Ericsson Getinge Hennes & Mauritz Investor AB Lundin Petroleum Modern Times Group Nokia Nordea Sandvik SCA Scania SEB Securitas Skanska SKF SSAB Svenska Handelsbanken Swedbank Swedish Match Tele2 TeliaSonera Volvo

Kelly Ripa
Ripa in 2008
Born	Kelly Maria Ripa (1970-10-02) October 2, 1970 (age 41) Stratford, New Jersey, United States
Occupation	Actress, host of Live! with Kelly, co-founder of Milojo, spokesperson for Electrolux and Rykä
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Mark Consuelos (1996–present)
Children	3

Kelly Maria Ripa (born October 2, 1970) is an American actress, talk show host, and television producer. Ripa, who played Hayley Vaughan on the television soap opera All My Children from 1990–2002, is best known as host of the popular syndicated morning talk show Live! with Kelly. Additionally, Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos own a New York based production company, Milojo.^[1]

In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named her one of the Most Powerful People in Media.^[2]

Early life[link]

Ripa was born in Stratford, New Jersey, the daughter of Esther, a homemaker, and Joseph Ripa, a labor-union president and bus driver. She has a younger sister, Linda, who is a children's book author.^[3] She is of Italian and Irish descent.^[4] Her father has been the Democratic County Clerk for Camden County, New Jersey since June 2009. She is the first in her family to enter the acting profession. She has studied ballet since age three, plays the piano, and, in her words, is "no Barbra Streisand," but can carry a tune.^[5]

Ripa graduated from Eastern High School in Voorhees Township, New Jersey,^[6] where she became a cheerleader and was later encouraged by her drama teacher to pursue acting. "I owe so much of my career to Jim Beckley,"^[7] she said. "He thought I was a natural performer and so he gave me the lead in the next show."^[8] She starred in local theatre productions and was discovered while performing in the comedy play The Ugly Duckling (c. 1941), by A.A. Milne, during her senior year.^[6] She attended Camden County College studying psychology, but dropped out and moved to New York City to be an actress.^[9]

Television career[link]

Dance Party USA[link]

Aside from local TV gigs, Ripa's first national television exposure came in 1986 when she appeared as a regular dancer on Dance Party USA. Her career goal at the time was to be a newscaster and she often did the cast news reports.

All My Children[link]

Ripa was cast in her first major acting role in 1990 as Hayley Vaughan, a troubled party girl, on All My Children. She concluded her 12-year stint in 2002, but returned for two episodes in 2010 to help celebrate the soap opera's 40th anniversary.

Live![link]

After co-host Kathie Lee Gifford's final show on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, Regis Philbin began holding on-air auditions to find her replacement. In his autobiography, How I Got This Way, Philbin says of discovering Ripa:

"There was one guest we'd had on with us a few years before who had [a certain sparkle]. Hers was a natural, quick-witted, unaffected, confident, fun-loving kind of sparkle that both Gelman and I remembered very well. We decided to invite her back, this time to consider her as a possible co-host. So that was when this smiling, petite ball of fire named Kelly Ripa made her return to Live! for a test run at the rotating, up-for-grabs hot seat to my left. And my God, who knew what spontaneous combustion we'd make together?"^[10]

The day of Ripa's initial Live! with Regis tryout, November 1, 2000, among the guests was a psychic named Char Margolis. During this segment, Margolis revealed a secret that Ripa had been keeping under wraps: she's pregnant with her second child. Ripa blushed and nervously replied, "I haven't told my boss yet!" Philbin later revealed that of all the potential candidates including Jane Krakowski, Valerie Bertinelli, Dolly Parton, and Bernadette Peters: "it could only be Kelly. We knew that from her memorable debut onward." Ripa was announced as official replacement on February 5, 2001. Within months, the renamed Live! with Regis and Kelly's young-audience demographics increased by 80 percent with Ripa credited for bringing "a new life to the show."^[11]

The chemistry between Philbin and Ripa (or "Pippa" as he nicknamed her), their banter, interviews, and conversations about their families, personal lives, and New York City attracted a successful, strong, and loyal viewership averaging 6 million viewers daily.^[12] In January 2011, Philbin, 80, announced that he would be retiring from Live! at the end of the year. His final show aired Friday, November 18, 2011, during which Ripa tearfully reminisced about her first day, the 43 steps they walked together from her dressing room onto set each day for 11 years, and how those 43 steps changed her life. "Thank you for everything! It's been just great my Pippa," Philbin told her in an embrace. Ripa responded: "Thank you for everything. I love you." "I love you, too," said Philbin.^[13]

Ripa returned the following Monday, November 21, 2011 to continue the show, now entitled Live! with Kelly. In the same process that she was discovered to replace Gifford, a rotating lineup of co-hosts have auditioned on-air with Ripa, including: Michael Strahan, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Groban, Seth Meyers, Jerry O'Connell, Nick Lachey, Derek Hough, Joel McHale, Taye Diggs, Ben Mulroney, Michael Bublé, Randy Jackson, Rob Lowe, Peter Facinelli, Reggie Bush, Dana Carvey, Mario Lopez, Mike Greenberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Short, Bryant Gumbel, Pat Kiernan, Dan Abrams, Jesse Palmer, Howie Mandel, Chris Harrison, and D.L. Hughley.^[14] Although an official replacement has yet to be announced, ratings in the interim have been extremely successful and therefore why executive producer Michael Gelman says there is no rush to choose Ripa's new co-host.^[15]

Hope & Faith[link]

Ripa ventured into primetime in September 2003 on Hope & Faith, playing Faith Fairfield, an unemployed ex-soap star. The half-hour sitcom, co-starring Faith Ford, Ted McGinley, and Megan Fox, gave ABC its best Friday premiere score since 1996. The show was cancelled in May 2006 with Ripa declaring she "never wanted to work that hard again."^[16]

Film career[link]

Best known for her television work, Ripa also has several feature films to her credit. She appeared in the acclaimed Miramax feature Marvin's Room in 1996 alongside Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1999, she won the Best Actress Award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival for her work in The Stand-In. Most recently, she was part of the voice cast of the computer-generated animated feature Fly Me to the Moon.

Other ventures[link]

Spokesperson[link]

Named among People's Most Intriguing People and one the Most Powerful People in Media according to The Hollywood Reporter, Ripa serves as a valuable and successful spokesperson for several companies. In the past, she has partnered with Tide, 7 Up, Pantene, and TD Bank, but currently works primarily with Electrolux and Rykä.

Rykä announced Ripa as the spokesperson for the brand's footwear and sporting apparel in 2008. Showcasing her commitment to an active, healthy lifestyle; Ripa oversees the design of her own fitness-inspired active wear line, The Kelly Ripa Collection.^[17]

Ripa stars in the Electrolux television and print advertising, and her image is used on point-of-sale materials and extensively online. Tom Coulman of Electrolux says "Her dynamic personality and on-the-go lifestyle really resonate and create a powerful brand connection."^[18]

Charity[link]

Ripa at 2007 Red Dress Collection for Heart Truth foundation

Ripa, a devoted supporter of the ovarian cancer cause, has teamed with Electrolux to raise funds for The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Every summer, she hosts an event called Super Saturday, a day-long fundraising event. 2011's event raised over $3.5 million for OCRF. Her dedication derives from losing a friend to ovarian cancer.^[19] In 2001, she appeared on a celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, hosted by Philbin. She won $250,000 for Tomorrow's Children's Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to speeding the healing of children with cancer and serious blood disorders.

Another cause important to Ripa is Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her active involvement with MADD is motivated by her sister, Linda, who was almost killed by a drunk driver in 1999.^[20]

Production Company[link]

In 2007, Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos founded Milojo, the highly successful SoHo-based production company. It began with the Emmy-nominated feature documentary The Streak, which told the story of a Florida high school wrestling team with a 34-year winning streak. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. In addition, Milojo launched a first-look development deal with Discovery Channel for non-scripted series' including Homemade Millionaire, hosted by Ripa, and the docu-series Masters of Reception. Their next film, Off the Rez, was also accepted to the Tribeca Film Festival and premiered on TLC in May 2011.^[21] In 2012, the company premiered its first short film, a collaboration with Will Ferrell's Funny or Die entitled "The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee" featuring Ripa, Consuelos, and their son, Michael. The video went viral and quickly exceeded 1,000,000 views.^[22]

Personal life[link]

On the set of All My Children, Ripa met Mark Consuelos — newly hired to play her onscreen lover Mateo Santos. After dating for a year, Ripa and Consuelos eloped in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996. On June 2, 1997, they welcomed their first son, Michael Joseph. The couple's second and third children, Lola Grace and Joaquin Antonio were born June 16, 2001 and February 24, 2003, respectively.

Filmography and Television Work[link]

Awards and Honors[link]

In 2007 and 2012, Ripa hosted the TV Land Awards to very positive reviews.^[23] She, herself, is an award winner, garnering five Soap Opera Digest Awards and three Daytime Emmy Award nominations for playing Hayley Vaughan on All My Children.

Ripa was also recognized for her work on the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade, which she co-hosted from 2001–2009, with the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special in 2006. She and co-host Regis Philbin also won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host for Live! with Regis and Kelly, for which they also received 12 Emmy Award nominations and 4 People's Choice Award nominations.

In 2008, Cowboy Mouth, a New Orleans, Louisiana-based rock band, honored Ripa by writing a song in tribute, entitled Kelly Ripa, that appeared on their album Fearless. The band performed the song on Live! on March 13, 2008.

On September 15, 2006, Ripa broke the Guinness World Record as twenty-four banana-cream pies were tossed at her mouth in one minute, as part of a Guinness World Record Breaker theme week on Live!. On September 16, 2011, Ripa broke the Guinness World Record for Most Grapes Trodden in 1 Minute, of 5.4 litres, as she extracted 8.4 litres. However, her competitor, Martina Servaty of Germany, extracted even more (8.6 litres), preventing Ripa from holding the new record.^[24]

The Broadcast Pioneers inducted Ripa into their Hall of Fame for her tremendous success in the television industry on November 19, 2010 and also honoured her as their Person of the Year.^[25]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Film portal
	Television portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kelly Ripa

• Kelly Ripa at the Internet Movie Database
• [1], official website for Live! with Kelly
• Kelly Ripa in Page Six Magazine
• Kelly Ripa on Twitter