They were once a big name appliance brand with the advertising jingle, “Guess who’s Mums got a Whirlpool” driving sales in Australia.
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Now they are struggling to sell their white good appliances, with the Company whose products are now distributed in Australia by the Harvey Norman owned Arisit, having a crack at trying to take on the likes of Swiss coffee machine Company Jura and Breville in the premium coffee machine market.
Whirlpools appliance business has been struggling for some time, now the US business is set to roll out a $3,500 coffee machine that could get traction with coffee lovers fed up with paying over $5 for a cappuccino in smaller cups than in the past.
The US business has developed a high-end espresso machine that’s aimed at work from home employees, who are currently snapping up the premium brand Jura machines, after getting fed up with Nespresso’s capsule machines. and poor performing coffee machines manufactured in China by Companies trying to capitalise on the boom in home brewed coffee.
Their new KitchenAid automatic espresso machine was launched in the USA with Harvey Norman stores tipped to get the machine later this year, the big question is what name it will be sold under.
Bloomberg has described it as a high-stakes gamble for Whirlpool who are seeing their small replacement appliances tracking to forecast.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Drew Reading claims that the high-end discretionary category is a weak one in a cautious consumer environment, said.
“It doesn’t really get more discretionary than a $2,000 espresso maker,” he said.
In the USA the new KitchenAid machines are currently being sold at Crate & Barrel and are set shortly stock will go on sale at UIS stores Best Buy, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
The cheaper models in the new fully automatic collection cost between A$1,890 and A$2,595.
“It makes sense that they’re putting investment into their small domestic appliances,” Reading said. “That’s where the growth is.”
The company expects operating margin for its small domestic appliance segment, which includes coffee makers, to be more than 15% this year.
US Sales of Coffee Makers Have Increased in Recent Years
Recently Whirlpool Australia extended its distribution agreement.
At this stage it’s not known whether Harvey Norman or other premium Harvey Norman stores will sell the new coffee machines with the big retailer also tipped to sell the new Loewe premium coffee machine.