GE to auction appliance unit

[launderess]

When it comes down to it politics and politicans have only about so much leverage. Unless they can stimulate demand for one particular brand, or lower production costs, what else is there?

Endless talking about saving Amercian manufacturing jobs is just that. The world has changed and the United States cannot go around wagging it's finger at other countries crying "protection" and "open your markets", while doing the exact same thing at home.

The sale of GE Appliance caps off a long litany of famous appliance brand names from Frigidaire to Norge that were cast off. Companies are ruled by share price, that is all that matters, and today instead of gobbling up every thing in sight, Wall Street wants to see results or the stock gets hammered. When an economic down turn hits, dead weight has to go, hence what we are seeing with GE.

 

[supersuds]

A couple more interesting tidbits from the Louisville paper:

"Potential buyers of General Electric’s Appliance Division could include Electrolux, Haier, LG Electronics, Samsung and Bosch – netting as much as $6.5 billion, Wall Street analysts predicted today.

"Such buyers would crave the GE name and its massive manufacturing and distribution network. But there is also good reason to keep the appliance factory and white collar staff viable in Louisville, said Nicholas P. Heymann, of Sterne Agee in New York.

“Union workers in Louisville are making Monogram products. There is a 30 percent margin on that business. That is where a lot of the money is made,” Heymann said of GE’s high end Monogram brand.

"With 2,500 members of IUE/CWA Local 761 employed at Appliance Park, GE manufactures Monogram dishwashers, and lower end GE washing machines and top-freezer refrigerators, company spokeswoman Kim Freeman said. Appliance Park workers also make Profile dishwashers, the company’s mid-range brand."

There's also an Appliance Park Timeline at this link. Ground was broken in 1951. I think before that GE's refrigerators were made in Cleveland, or was it New York State?

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080515/BUSINESS/80515019

 

[liberator1509]

Maybe Indesit will try to buy them out

GE had a substantial holding in GDA (the post GEC owner of Hotpoint and associated brands in the UK). Indesit (or Merloni Elettrodomestici as it was known at the time) bought out GDA's holding (about 50%), and have purchased more since. Indesit is now a very large company, second in Europe after the all-consuming Electrolux. GDA marketed their Hotpoint washers as GE in overseas markets in recent years.

Indesit has global ambitions, and in spite of closing former Hotpoint facilities in the UK (basically because it is not a cheap manufacturing country anymore), I would be surprised if they didn't bid - if only to get hold of the Hotpoint brand on a global level. I mentioned this before when Indesit announced the merging of the Ariston and Hotpoint brands in Europe - it would make sense for them to have hold of it worldwide.

 

[supersuds]

That's an interesting point about having control of Hotpoint worldwide. GE has done nothing to promote it in North America for years and I wonder how much value it has as a brand name any more, at least in the U.S.

Latest from the Wall Street Journal on a possible buyer is that LG Electronics is "looking into it very carefully," a direct quote form LG's chief executive.

The Journal notes that "Though GE is one of the pioneers in home appliances and a well-known brand in the U.S., LG operates on a bigger scale world-wide. Last year, LG sold $11.5 billion of appliances, compared with GE's $7.2 billion."

 

[paulg]

Quality fade.

Watch out if a Chinese/Korean buys GE Appliances. For a while the quality will seem good - if not better. Then comes the quality fade and you'll see the tubing rotting out in a few years like most foreign largely-garbage dehumidifiers. I'd rather replace the compressor in my 1954 CROSLEY a thousand times over than buy an overpriced rebadged Korean fridge.
Yes, you cannot stop the global manufacturing climate nowadays but I don't like purchasing product that has virtually absent service or high mortality within ten years.
My rule of thumb: It is not what you get for the money with most Chinese/Korean manufacturers - it is what you DON'T get....