Electrolux
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The Electrolux Group is a Swedish corporation which manufactures home appliances and appliances for professional use, selling more than 40 million products to customers in 150 countries every year. Electrolux products include refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cookers sold under brands such as Electrolux, AEG-Electrolux, Zanussi, Eureka and Frigidaire.
In 2005, Electrolux had sales of SEK 100 billion and 57,000 employees. Electrolux has 22 factories in Europe and holds a 28% share of the household appliances market in the world.
History
Electrolux was founded in 1910 as Elektromekaniska AB, and changed its name to Elektrolux after merging with Lux AB in 1919. The spelling was changed to Electrolux in 1957.The company was organized as a holding company in 1928, and under the leadership of Hans Werthén Electrolux grew rapidly during the 1970s.
In North America, the Electrolux name was long used by a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, founded by a Swedish businessman who emigrated to the U.S. In 1998, that company transferred its rights to the trademark in North America to the Electrolux Group, and now operates under the name Aerus LLC. Following the return of the trademark, Electrolux of Sweden has added a line of Electrolux home appliances in the U.S. and Canada to its previous products.
In 2002 Hans Stråberg was appointed president and CEO.
Recent Product Premieres
2000: Premiere of the Screenfridge, an Internet-connected refrigerator designed to be the communications hub for the home as well as keeping track of cold foodstuffs. This concept was developed into an actual product, currently available from the company.2001: Introduction of the Oxygen vacuum cleaner, equipped with the Electrolux O2 filter system HEPA 13, which provides 99.5% filtration capacity, meaning that the exhaust air is actually cleaner than the air on the North Pole
2002: Launch of the world’s first robot vacuum cleaner, Trilobite
2002: Launch of the world’s first talking washing machine, the Washy Talky, in India
2003: Electrolux supplies household appliances to Terra Nova Bay base on the Antarctic coast. The base is also used as a temporary stock for additional units destined for the inland Concordia base when the local winter season ends in October.
2003: Electrolux introduced the first Design Lab competition for students
2005: Electrolux introduces new colored and patterned appliances.
Brands
- AEG
- Arthur Martin
- Atlas (appliances)
- Castor (appliances)
- Chef
- Corberó
- Dimas (appliances)
- Dito
- Dometic
- Elektro Helios
- Electrolux
- Electrolux Laundry Systems
- Electrolux Professional
- Eureka Vacuum Cleaners
- Faure (appliances)
- Frigidaire
- Gibson Appliance
- Juno (appliances)
- Kelvinator
- Lehel (appliances)
- Marynen/Marijnen
- Molteni
- Parkinson Cowan
- Progress (appliances)
- REX
- Rosenlew
- Simpson
- Tappan
- Target (appliances)
- Therma (appliances)
- Tricity Bendix
- Viking (appliances)
- Volta (appliances)
- Voss (appliances)
- Wascator
- Westinghouse
- White-Westinghouse
- Zanussi (and Zanussi Professional)
- Zoppas
Slogan
In the 1950s, the company successfully marketed vacuums in the United Kingdom with the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."[link][link] British consumers took the slogan literally, because "sucks" as a term of disparagement is strictly an Americanism. However, Americans often incorrectly believe that this was a brand blunder.The slogan has been adapted by minicomputer geeks as "Nothing sucks like a VAX", punning on the UK competitor vacuum brand Vax[link].
External links
- Main
- [Electrolux Homepage] - Official site
- [Electrolux USA Homepage]
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