EXCLUSIVE:Electrolux Global CEO Talks About Companies Future Innovation & Asian Competitors

This week the global CEO of Electrolux Yannick Fierling paid a flying visit to Australia, after taking the reins of the European appliance giant in January 2025, at what appeared to be a bad time for the entire European appliance industry.

His visit to Australia follows a major restructure of the Australian operation which recently undertook an SAP implementation, with Fierling bullish on the future of the Companies business in Australia and New Zealand.

Globally the Australian New Zealand operations of Electrolux are the 4th largest in the world for the Swedish appliance group “Which is one of the reasons that I am here” he said.

“It is the fourth biggest market for us as a company, and it’s very natural for me to be here today to work together with our team”.

His visit to Australia comes as global disruption issues impact European appliance brands who in part are also victims of heavy regulations by European Union regulators, and high production costs with brands such as AEG, Electrolux, Westinghouse, Bosh, Miele, NEF, Gaggenau shopping the world for new component suppliers.

Currently, the European appliance market is down 16% after being down 23% in 2023, but despite this Electrolux who have been handling their own problems in Australia managed to deliver 11.5% worldwide organic growth last year.

A significant contributor to the growth came from South American Countries and overseas subsidiaries.

In an exclusive interview with ChannelNews Fierling pointed out that the global market for European appliance brands has been collapsing, over several years, especially in Europe.

“Just to give you an idea about the problems in Europe because they’re pretty impressive, volume levels in 2024 are what we had in 2014″.

It’s 20 to 30% less than what we should have in terms of volume versus the business cases we only made a few years ago”.

The market has been more or less flat. It has been declining minus two percent in volume in Western Europe and has been growing by plus one percent in Eastern Europe. In 2020, and since the COVID period we have been facing problems in that during that period we were not able to manufacture enough appliances”.

Going forward the big issues for brands including Swedish Company Electrolux are rising power costs from Chinese competitors, tariffs, currency fluctuation, material, and component costs, according to Electrolux’s former CEO Jonas Samuelson who signed off on their 2024 financials.

“We have had a very high level of inflation in terms of all material components across Europe and North America….we also had a war in Ukraine, and as a consequence, energy cost has increased massively”. Fierling said.

Currently, electricity prices in Europe are 2-3 times higher than those in the US, Australia, and several other Countries according to analysts.

This is hurting EU industries that use energy intensively – like the home appliance industry who now face higher investment costs than their competitors to meet decarbonisation targets. This price gap puts European businesses at a disadvantage and threatens their ability to compete in global markets with Chinese brands, which Fierling refers to as “New brands” now looking to strip share some with “Wi-Fi capability built-in” appliances.

Fierling, who previously headed the European operation of Haier is well-versed in the ambitions of Chinese brands looking to grow market share at the expense of European brands both in Australia and elsewhere.

As for where Electrolux is going in the future Fierling said “We have Brands, which are more than 100 years old. With both customers and resellers this is differentiating us from some of the new entrants you see in Asia”.

As for who the new entrants are he singled out the likes of Haier and other Chinese appliance brands which in Australia include TCL, Hisense and Fisher & Paykel which is owned by Haier.

He said that one of the questions he is often asked is whether Electrolux ‘Is innovating more than the Asians?’

“No, we’re not innovating more than the Asians, but the innovation we’re launching on the market, is very relevant to what our customers want.”

“We have one of the best consumer online ratings worldwide in every single region, because we’re introducing innovation that our customers want,” he said.

“Our brands and our understanding of what customers want is probably what is differentiating us from many others who are playing basically and purely on cost.”

“It’s not only brand perception that matters but also about quality, and Electrolux launching better products on the market than our competitors.”

“I think, better products are the products, which are more consumer relevant than what our competitors sell.”

Asked to describe a better product he said, “It’s better quality. It’s innovations, which are basically adding value to the daily life of our customers. It’s designs which are fitting of what consumers expect to see in the kitchen, it’s also products that are consumer relevant”.

Currently, analysts are concerned that the challenging environment facing European appliance manufacturers is made worse by strong global competition and ongoing labour shortages, which together create a landscape where many European manufacturers are going to struggle to survive against stiff competition from Chinese and South Korean brands.

Earlier this week Samsung rolled out a major new appliance range that has a new generation of AI and display screens built in, several European appliance brands are yet to adopt AI technology in the belief that a large slice of the market does not want AI in their laundry or cooking appliances unless it delivers cost savings.

Samsung is also going after the robotic vacuum market claiming they are confident that they can get to #1 worldwide.

While Fierling did not want to name or talk about competitors he did claim that basically adding a Wi-Fi connection to a laundry or cooking product was not necessarily the innovation that consumers want in their home today, “It needs to be more than that,” he said.

Innovation has to be more than a technology hook-up to the cloud.

“Having connectivity on the product matters, and how we will be using connectivity moving forward, is important.”

“I think it’s more about customisation.”

Later this year Electrolux is set to launch a new AEG premium range of appliances where AI and digital apps play a key role in delivering a new level of functionality.

Today, there are about 130 home appliance manufacturing facilities in Europe that are now having to review their options due to Trump’s tariffs.

In the past the home appliance industry has been a driving force for the EU economy, contributing an added value of A$136 billion to the European economy.

In Europe both the automotive and appliance industries appear to have become victims of the exponential growth of eco and sustainability regulations, which are hurting brands while creating an unsustainable burden that undermines the competitiveness of European manufacturers.

European appliance brands that ChannelNews has spoken to claim that EU legislation generates unnecessary compliance issues that are pushing up the cost of European appliances, and in some cases making them uncompetitive in the value and affordable appliance markets where Chinese-owned brands are gaining share.

Fierling said, “Let me tell you a little bit about how I see the future here. The first and most important thing for us and I think we have been looking at our results is to solve what we do in North America, and we’re working quite a lot on this issue.”

“We’re doing quite well in Australia and New Zealand, so I am looking to keep on growing the business in a profitable manner.”

He admitted that “We have been losing too much” in the past.

“What we have in progress is going to allow us to grow once again in a very profitable manner. We have a lot of opportunities in terms of brand mix.”

He believes that the mix of brands that Electrolux has today that include Westinghouse, Electrolux, AEG and Vintec wine fridges.

Fierling concluded, “We have in our company, and in markets like Australia and New Zealand a lot of potential growth moving forward.”