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