Electrolux
Electrolux AB is a Swedish company in the field of kitchen appliances for household and professional based in Stockholm. It belongs to the group of companies Wallenberg.
The company had 2011 sales of about 102 billion Swedish crowns, and employed approximately 53,000 people. The best-known brands and subsidiaries of the Group in Germany are (besides Electrolux itself) AEG and Zanussi.
- 2.1 Household Appliances
- 2.2 Equipment for commercial kitchens
- 2.3 Absorption refrigerators for camping and RVs
History
Electrolux was founded in 1910 under the name Elektromekaniska AB Axel Leonard Wenner -Gren and was renamed Electrolux after the merger with the company Lux AB 1919. 1913, the company produced its first vacuum cleaner in 1925 the first refrigerator that worked on an idea by Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters. In the following years the company grew strongly. In 1957, the name of Electrolux in Electrolux has changed. The company logo of Electrolux designed in 1961 by the Swiss artist Carlo Vivarelli.
In the 1960s, the company, like many other manufacturers of household appliances came into a crisis. The new company's management stated that the company was too small to cope with the increasingly fierce competition, and a phase of diversification and aggressive growth, it has been initiated. Between 1970 and 1979, 59 companies were taken over, and at the end of this decade, Electrolux had production facilities in 20 countries and more than 80,000 employees.
In the 1980s, this strategy was continued (for example, 1984 through the acquisition of the Italian company Zanussi ), at the same time we tried to conquer the North American market that had been abandoned since the late 1960s. So you took over in 1986 the kitchen appliance manufacturer White Consolidated Industries. In the 1990s, people began to refocus on the actual core area. 1994 were taken over parts of the German company AEG, later also the brand name was purchased. 1998 Electrolux sold the Swedish plow manufacturer Överum to Kongskilde Industries. In 2000 Electrolux sold his shares in Lux ( Germany ) GmbH to Lux International AG.
Today, Electrolux is the market leader in home appliances. 2003 announced the then CEO Hans Stråberg to want to reduce the model range. In Europe alone, the company has more than 30 brands that are to be significantly reduced from marketing and cost reasons. With the liquidation of Quelle GmbH as of October 2009 breaks away an important major customer for the Group. Source distribution of the Group, the devices under their own brand privilege. In February 2012, the company announced far-reaching restructuring measures which provide for the elimination of more than 1,000 employees as well as the closure of several regional and country offices.
Therma
The name of Therma is mainly known in Switzerland. Since 1978, the Therma- group is part of the Electrolux Group. At its founding in 1871 included the fabrication of the furnace factory Sursee cheese cellar ovens, dried apparatus, food steamer, ovens, cookers, washing stoves, coal-fired commercial kitchen stoves, gas stoves, church heaters, central and floor heating systems. 1923, the program was extended to electric household and commercial kitchen equipment. In 1966 the merger of the three companies Therma AG, Elcalor AG and Sursee Werke AG for Therma Grossküchen AG was. From January 2005, then, the complete transfer of the company as well as the Therma brand in the Electrolux.
Electrolux in Germany
1925 was founded in Germany Electrolux GmbH and decreed by the expropriation in East Germany after 1945, 3 works in the Federal Republic. Office of the Company was Hamburg, products for private customers are now distributed from Nuremberg; Large kitchen appliances and laundry machines from Herborn from. At both sites, research institutions exist.
In addition to its own activities, the various competitors located bankrupt company Zanker in Tübingen and large parts of the ailing AEG Group have also been adopted in Germany, including 1981. Especially in the highly competitive market of home appliances suffered the purchased works under enormous cost pressure. The result of the closure of the AEG plants in Herborn and Kassel and in 2005 were 2002, the closure of the plant for washing machines and dishwashers in Nuremberg with 1,750 employees by 2007, these capacities were. Of the works in Italy ( Porcia and Solaro ) and Poland ( Oława and Żarów ) taken. Thus, there is still a March 2007 AEG Appliances plant in Germany, namely, are produced in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the ovens, cookers and hobs. Local union representatives called for a boycott of all products of the Group on (consumer boycott ). Background of plant closure is the ongoing price erosion in the field of home appliances mostly with sets from Turkey and China. In October 2009, the group employed in Germany for about 2000 employees, of whom 1300 work in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Products
Home appliances
Electrolux manufactures not only under his own name. Many companies went into the group to which the business operations are attributed to the group, but the brand also existrieren continue. Including: AEG, Juno, Progress, Zanker and Zanussi and Frigidaire and Kelvinator in the United States. Also, some high-priced devices at IKEA come from Electrolux.
Catering equipment
The large kitchen Category Electrolux Professional is a major supplier of commercial kitchen appliances and the market leader in the premium segment worldwide. The products themselves off to the devices of Zanussi, which are produced in Italy, covering the lower price segment in the Group.
In the portfolio of Electrolux Professional, there are many traditional businesses: for example, the company Burger (and later Juno ) who invented the hot-air oven and steamer, the Swiss company Therma etc.
Absorption refrigerators for camping and RVs
Electrolux is practically the sole European leader (2008 ) for small absorption refrigerators (product name Electrolux RM nnn ) for campers, caravans and for hotel rooms. The brand is sold the same design under the name " Dometic ".