Second quarter 2023 in negative for Electrolux showing a decline in sales of 8.4% while on the revenue front the decline was more modest: -3%, to 2.84 billion Euros. What is worse is that the Swedish multinational expects this trend to continue. For this reason he thinks about the sale of brands like Zanussi and Zoppas, which represent a part of Italian industrial history, together with Ideal, Faure, Zanker, Rosenlew, Elektro-Helios for household appliances, and Olympic Electric and Kwikot for water heaters, in addition to production facilities in Egypt (for the "white") and those of water heaters in Egypt and South Africa. 

Also on sale are properties where production has ceased (this is the case in Memphis, Usa) or will soon cease (the Hungarian factory in Nyiregyhaza). The total value of the sale is estimated at approximately SEK 10 billion, or over 860 million Euros.

"After the spin-off of the professional business, namely Electrolux Professional, since 2020 independent company, our focus is on sustainable innovation -explains Electrolux ceo Jonas Samuelson-. The group’s strategy is geared towards profitable growth in selected categories of household appliances in the medium and premium segments, with our leading brands Electrolux, Aeg and Frigidaire". The proposed operation may not be the only one. "Further structural simplifications and complexity reductions are being evaluated", adds Samuelson.

The announcement came along with the quarterly that captures another period of suffering in terms of sales for the group, which saw the market shrink again with demand, which in Europe has fallen by 12% and remains weak in other areas such as the US and Asia. Revenues in the quarter were -3% in the period to 2.84 billion Euros, while they have a positive change in the half-year from January to June with a +2% and a turnover of 5.73 billion Euros. The operating result is negative for 10.7 million Euros, discounting the provisions linked to a dispute with the French Antitrust. The second quarter closed with a loss of approximately 56.3 million Euros.

The decline in sales, the company says, "was caused by the persistent weakness of market demand with consumers moving towards lower price ranges". The prices partly offset the demand, "although the promotions have increased significantly". Samuelson says however "satisfied" from the point of view of the cut of the costs: the objective to reduce of 3.800 dependent the organic one of the group is reached 83%. The saving is worth about 138 million Euros: the target is over 432.8 million Euros of annual savings in 2023, and over 606 million Euros in 2024, compared to the numbers of 2022. 

In the period April-June "the cost of the raw materials has been neutral -the ceo emphasizes still- but the currency has deteriorated and we have continued to face a high cost inflation in particular on job and energy". The outlook, according to Samuelson, is inflation and interest rates that will continue to impact consumer choice throughout 2023. "As a result, we expect that market demand will be negative also for the last part of the year» and in all countries", adds the ceo.

Obviously, the lower demand will be reflected on the Italian plants that resort to the redundancy fund, in particular Porcia, Solaro and Forlì.