Whirlpool cutting 5000 jobs and closing a factory
Submitted by tagoneo on Mon, 10/31/2011 - 1:21pm.
Whirlpool is cutting about 10% of its workforce in North America and Europe. They are also closing the Ft. Smith, Arkansas factory. You can read about it here:
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/whirlpool_to_cut_500...
But there is a minute ray of positive sunshine - they are creating 30 temp jobs at the now-defunct W.C. Wood freezer factory in Ottawa, Ohio, which Whirlpool re-opened for freezer production. This will be the new home of their trash compactor assembly line. News on this can be read here:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Retail/2011/10/29/Whirlpool-to-add-30-temp-jo...
Not Good News...
This indicates a slow down even in the mid markets and appears to be an adjustment as a result of not only lower demand but increased productivity. The US is still the most productive country in the world and even a slight tick in the economy is now affecting every move a company makes. My guess is we should watch with interest the dumping charges to see if they take hold somewhere. I suggest these companies dump almost every product and don't live by the same rules we do.I am sorry to see this happen.My guess is it will be some time before all the employees come back to work.
Electrolux, too ...
... has experienced the same "Appliance Sales Tumble" as reported in the Wall Street Journal - Weekend Edition ... Electrolux reports a 40% drop and Whilrpool @ 42% plunge ...
The bad news is the loss of jobs and the relocation of them outside America ...
The good news of the article was that Whirlpool's profit forecast had been slashed for the year by reducing the number of promotions and maintaining prices ...
This is certainly a more responsible reasoning than raising prices in a climate where, as Whirlpool's CEO claims: "People who are buying are people whose appliances break."
Finally, some sanity, well sort of !!!
lack of sanity
Bob, we were all hoping for the sanity to be true. I sure was. But I bet we see Whirlpool raise price the 1st of the year. GE already announced an increase effective the new year. Electrolux just announced an increase effective the 1st of the year. The appliance big 3 always move in unison. Whirlpool will probably be joining GE and Electrolux with their own price increase. Samsung and LG will probably follow suit. And, due to the price dumping decision against LG, GE, Samsung, and Electrolux that was initiated by Whirlpool through the US Commerce Department, US customers will probably be forced to spend more for refrigerators.
This reduction comes at
This reduction comes at about the exact time I was expecting it to. I work in sales at a big box store and I must say it is horrid for sales for the other guy in my department I do OK at best. I have noticed that sales of Whirlpool products as a group have gone way way down. They launched a 2 door 2 drawr fridge that is a laughing stock of my department compared to the one they are going after. In this economy everything is being affected and even Whirlpool can't sustain. Lets not forget just over a year ago Sears the cash cow for Whirlpool pulled away from them to go with a higher margin so I asked how do you replace these funds in a downward economy.
maintaining cash flow and profitability in these times
littlecity, myself having worked for the corporate hell known as big box, I remember your pain. Replacing the funds is easy...for the independent dealer. If you run your business right, you will survive and even prosper in these times. Our margins have fallen a bit, but our volume has maintained. We focus on what pieces we can discount but still maintain profit, where typical big box stores do flat discounting across the board, and cost average profitability. That philosophy is fading fast. The customer is aware that cheap means no service. And while there are many customers willing to suffer poor customer service from a store or manufacturer or service company, all in the pursuit of a cheap price, our customer base here grows because of our reputation. We service what we sell, we deliver what we sell, and we talk to manufacturers for the customer...no customer calls an 800 number unless they want to. And we find that as long as our price is in a fair retail range, people will pay a little more for good service. And our P&L shows this.