Public Aktiebolag | |
Traded as | Nasdaq Stockholm: ELUX B |
Industry | Home appliance |
Founded | 1919 |
Headquarters | , Sweden |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
Jonas Samuelson (President and CEO), Ronnie Leten (Chairman) |
Products | Major appliances, Small appliances |
Revenue | SEK 123.51 billion (2015) |
SEK 2.74 billion (2015) | |
Profit | SEK 1.56 billion (2015) |
Total assets | SEK 83.47 billion (end 2015) |
Total equity | SEK 14.97 billion (end 2015) |
Number of employees
|
55,245 (2015) |
Parent | Investor AB (13.6%) |
Website | www |
AB Electrolux (commonly known as Electrolux) is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in . It is consistently ranked the world's second-largest appliance maker by units sold (after Whirlpool). Electrolux products sell under a variety of brand names (including its own), and are primarily major appliances and vacuum cleaners intended for consumer use. The company also makes appliances for professional use.
Electrolux has a primary listing on the and is a constituent of the index.
The company originates from a merger of two companies—Lux AB and Svenska Elektron AB, the former an established manufacturer and the latter a younger company founded by a former vacuum salesman who had also been an employee of the former firm. The origins of Electrolux are closely tied to the vacuum, but today it also makes major appliances.
In 1919 a Svenska Elektron AB acquisition, Elektromekaniska AB, became Elektrolux (the spelling was changed to Electrolux in 1957.) It initially sold Lux-branded vacuum cleaners in several European countries.
In 1923, the company acquired AB Arctic and subsequently added absorption refrigerators to its product line. Other appliances soon followed, including washing machines in 1951,dishwashers in 1959, and food service equipment in 1962.
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. This style of growth continued through the 1990s, seeing Electrolux purchase scores of companies including, for a time, Husqvarna.
Hans Werthen, President and later Chairman of the Board, led the strategic core of an increasingly decentralized Electrolux—and was instrumental to its rapid growth.
While attempts to cut costs, centralise administration, and wring out economies of scale from Electrolux's operations were made in the 1960s and 1970s with the focus so firmly on growth, further company-wide restructuring efforts only began in the late 1990s.