Days after Hitachi Home Appliances  announced an expansion of its appliance offering in Australia via an exclusive deal with Bing Lee, Hitachi Japan has announced that they are looking at the possibility of getting out of the appliance business.

In Australia the rights to the Hitachi brand are owned by Turkish appliance conglomerate Arcelik, who also own Beko now Japanese management at Hitachi are exploring an exit which could see Arcelik become a player in the sale of the brand or lose access to the brand altogether after their contract ends if a competitor buys the business.

Recently Hitachi executives approached multiple companies to see if they would purchase the white goods business, with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics believed to be among the potential suitors expressing interest according to Nikki Asia.

Estimated sale price for the business whose products are also sold at Harvey Norman could be between A$1 and $2 billion dollars.

Hitachi Global Life Solutions, the group company that handles white goods for the Japanese market, saw sales fall 2% in their fiscal year ending in March 2025 despite overall sales of whitegoods climbing 2.4% in Japan last year.

Hitachi’s main business operations lie in railway systems, power grids, IT solutions and industrial equipment.

Previously Japanese brands Sharp and Hitachi were major players in the appliance market, then in 2010, South Korean Companies as well as Chinese brands started taking share similar to what they did in the TV market.

In 2012, China’s Haier Group acquired the white goods business of Japan’s now-defunct Sanyo Electric.

In 2016, China’s Midea Group bought a struggling Toshiba’s white goods business, and Taiwan’s Foxconn acquired Sharp that same year.

In Australia the Sharp brand is distributed by Tempo.

Panasonic Holdings and Mitsubishi Electric are among the few Japanese companies left in the white goods sector and are engaged in fierce competition with Asian rivals with Mitsubishi holding ground in Australia in suburbs where there are large populations of Asian immigrants especially in Victoria.

The reason given is that the brand was known to them prior to emigrating to Australia.

Home electronics were once Hitachi’s main strength, but the company has since downsized the segment after struggling losing share in the TV market.

Internationally, Asian brands rank highly.

Haier is the world leader in refrigerators with a 22.8% share of the global market as of 2024, according to Euromonitor International they are also #1 in washing machines, with 27.5%, while Midea are second with 13.1% share.

In 2021, Hitachi sold a majority stake of its international white goods business excluding Japan to Turkey’s Arcelik, with the operation run as a joint venture.

Newly installed President and CEO Toshiaki Tokunaga told Nikkei in a June interview that there is “no end to the business restructuring.”

“We’ll continue to reform for growth,” said Tokunaga.

Last week Hitachi Home Appliances launched a new Intelligent Series Laundry Range, featuring smart washing machines and heat pump dryers designed to deliver automated fabric care through advanced sensor technology and connectivity features.

The range, available exclusively at Bing Lee stores, comprises front-loading washing machines in 9kg and 12kg capacities, plus a 9kg heat pump dryer, all incorporating WiFi connectivity through Hitachi’s HomeWhiz app for remote monitoring and control.