Whirlpool whose products are widely sold at Harvey Norman has cut its full-year earnings forecast as sales fall with the business tipping a bleak 2023.
The KitchenAid Company said that revenues will fall 6% in 2022.
The big US appliance Company claims that the appetite for appliances has dipped as decades-high inflation crimps consumers’ budgets.
Year to date shares in Whirlpool Corporation have fallen 29% but despite the revenue downturn shares rose last night 3.1% as analysts were fearing a worse result than what was delivered.
Whirlpool’s second-quarter sales were $5.1 billion — shy of the $5.2 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg and down 4.3% from a year earlier.
Supply-chain issues and a slowdown in demand drove the decline, the company said, with higher prices acting as an offset.
Revenue for North America, the company’s largest market, was just under $3 billion, missing expectations.
The slowdown in consumer interest “was probably a little bit more abrupt or sudden than we had expected,” Whirlpool Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Demand will likely remain suppressed through 2022, he said. But Whirlpool says key drivers, such as consumers’ need to replace aging appliances, bode well for the medium to long term.
Whirlpool maintained its full-year outlook for materials inflation at $1.5 billion to $1.75 billion, primarily driven by higher costs for steels and resins.
The peak in the cost increases could come by the third quarter, Peters said.