Author Archives: whitegoodsnow

LG said it will collaborate with Lumi United Technologies

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LG said it will collaborate with Lumi United Technologies, a Chinese Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider, to develop a wide range of smart home solutions.

The South Korean electronics maker signed a memorandum of understanding with Lumi, Xiaomi’s IoT arm, to develop artificial intelligence-based smart home services.

A smart home is an automated home system based on the IoT, sensors and services connected through a wireless network, allowing users to remotely monitor and control the system.

The companies will also jointly showcase their smart home devices during the upcoming Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Europe’s largest tech show slated for next month, LG said.

LG said the partnership will boost its smart home ecosystem based on connected devices, AI platform and smart sensors.

Lumi has released over 20 smart devices, including sensors, controllers and gateways, under the name of “Aqara,” and has been partnering with global IT firms, including Apple, Google and Amazon.

Bosch Asia-Pacific operations

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BSH Home Appliances Group on Tuesday announced top level-changes by elevating Gunjan Srivastava as head of Asia-Pacific operations.

Srivastava will be replaced by Neeraj Bahl, who joins as new India Managing Director and CEO of BSH Home Appliances, said a company statement.

Bahl joined BSH in July this year and prior to that he was working with Panasonic India where he was the Group Chief Sales for retail and online segment, it added.

In his new role, Srivastava will be based in Singapore and his mandate will encompass running BSH business across the Asia-Pacific region including India, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

BSH Home Appliances, a European market leader, which entered India in 2010, operates with three brands — Bosch, Siemens and recently launched luxury brand Gaggenau

Smuggling of home appliances to Iran rises

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The volume of home appliances smuggled to Iran has increased, while most of the goods are smuggled from Dubai to Tehran via country’s southern borders, said the head of Tehran Home Appliance Association,Trendreports citing Fars News Agency.

“The number of smuggled home appliances to the country has increased comparing to previous years. Despite the ban on imports, the home appliances shops are offering foreign brands,” said Morteza Miri.

“Part of smuggled home appliances arrive to the country via western or southern borders, but another part is the domestic home appliances that are being sold under foreign brands,” he noted.

“Smugglers take the domestic home appliances to western borders, stick foreign brands on them and multiply the price to sell it in Iranian market. The fake home appliances are being sold via social media; therefore, it’s advised that people pay attention to the validity of the products,” he added.

In his words, some people purchase the home appliances in Dubai and give it to smugglers to be delivered in Tehran.

“It was expected that domestic production will be supported after the import of home appliances was banned, but it did not happen,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the prices of domestic home appliances have not increased in the last two months, the manufacturers of domestic home appliances obtain foreign currency at NIMA rate to import raw material,” he added.

Gerhard Dambach to be the new CFO and member of the Board of Management of BSH Hausgeräte GmbH

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Gerhard Dambach, currently CEO of Robert Bosch Italy, will move to BSH as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective September 1, 2019

The 56-year-old holder of a Ph.D. in industrial engineering will succeed Johannes Närger, who retired as of June 30

MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gerhard Dambach (56) will become the new CFO and Labor Relations Director of Europe’s leading home appliance manufacturer BSH Hausgeräte GmbH. He will be the Board of Management member responsible for finance and the North America region. The holder of a Ph.D. in industrial engineering has worked for the Bosch Group since 1993, holding various positions, including managerial positions, in finance and controlling. In his most recent post, he was the CEO of the Italian Bosch subsidiary with responsibility for the Italy and Greece regions. He is also the current President of the German-Italian Chamber of Commerce.

“Gerhard Dambach has many years of international experience within the Bosch Group and great expertise in finance and human resources. We are therefore very pleased to appoint him to the Board of Management of BSH,” said Prof. Dr. Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, Chairman of BSH’s Supervisory Board.

Management, Dambach will be responsible for finance and controlling and will serve as the Group’s Labor Relations Director, beginning on September 1, 2019. His remit will also include the BSH region of North America (United States and Canada). The 56-year-old father completed his study of industrial engineering at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in 1988. After that, he earned a Ph.D. there at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

“Being appointed to the Board of Management of BSH is both a challenge and a motivation for me. I am very much looking forward to the exciting task of helping to guide the destiny of this extraordinary company in a market that is undergoing radical changes,” Dambach said.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. is proud to announce the rankings and results of J.D. Power’s 2019 Kitchen and Laundry Appliance Satisfaction studies.

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Samsung Electronics America, Inc. is proud to announce the rankings and results of J.D. Power’s 2019 Kitchen and Laundry Appliance Satisfaction studies. As the number one selling brand of major appliances1,Samsung has achieved number one rankings in both Laundry and Kitchen, ranking the highest in five out of nine categories.

Consumer satisfaction was measured on a 1000-point scale and was based on six factors: ease of use, features, performance and reliability, price, styling and appearance, and warranty. Highlights of this year’s study include:

In Front-Load Washers, Samsung ranked number one for the second year in a row out of 5 brands and performed highest in ease of use, performance and reliability, price, styling and appearance and features.

In Top-Load Washers, Samsung ranked number one out of 5 brands and performed highest in performance and reliability, price, ease of use, features, styling and appearance and warranty.

In Clothes Dryers, Samsung ranked number one out of 5 brands and performed highest in performance and reliability, price, ease of use, features, styling and appearance and warranty.

In Freestanding Ranges, Samsung ranked number one out of 6 brands and performed highest in performance and reliability, ease of use, styling and appearance, features and warranty.
In Over-the-Range Microwaves, Samsung ranked number one out of 6 brands and performed highest inperformance and reliability, ease of use, price, styling and appearance and features.
“At Samsung, we are proud to be recognized by J.D. Power’s Appliance Satisfaction studies on such a broad scale,” said John Herrington, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics America.“The J.D. Power results are invigorating and reinforce our commitment to unique design and innovation. As we focus on our 2019 and 2020 line-ups, we are excited to bring more cutting-edge products to the market that inspire consumers and achieve the level of performance our consumers have come to expect.”

About J.D. Power
J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power has offices serving North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

1 TraQline, Number 1 market share of large U.S. home appliance from 2016 to current (Q1 2019)

Samsung to Outsource Manufacture of Low-End Appliances

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Samsung will outsource the manufacture of low-cost home appliances to other companies amid dwindling profits from the business.

Industry insiders said Samsung is looking for factories to outsource the production of low-end refrigerators, air purifiers and other home appliances. Samsung will handle research and development, product design and marketing, but the actual products sold under its brand will be manufactured elsewhere.

Samsung will outsource the manufacture of low-cost home appliances to other companies amid dwindling profits from the business.

The move signals a sea change for Korean conglomerates, which have long insisted on making even less profitable appliances in their own factories, first in Korea and then, as labor costs rose, in China and Vietnam.

Samsung is mainly eyeing Chinese manufacturers, according to an industry insider, starting with refrigerators and small washing machines.

A Samsung staffer said, “We will keep producing high-value-added products such as semiconductors, TVs and smartphones.”

Last year, Samsung suffered losses from two low-priced refrigerator models due to high manufacturing overheads. Profit-loss simulations showed that outsourcing their manufacture would save costs and produce W250 billion in additional profits. (US$1=W1,189).

The company also lost money from modifying production lines and purchasing vast amounts of parts for its bewildering range of products amid intensifying competition from low-priced Chinese rivals.

“We will pursue a two-track approach by continuing to manufacture premium home appliances at our factory in Gwangju while outsourcing low-priced products,” the staffer said.

Samsung has been looking to cut costs for decades. It set up factories in Malaysia in 1991 and expanded to Suzhou, China, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Poland and Mexico to make affordable products for sale there.

Outsourcing production entirely is the logical next step. Home appliances are not Samsung’s mainstay and only account for some nine percent of its sales in an oversaturated market.

Song Jae-yong at Seoul National University said, “There are concerns that Korea could lose production knowhow if the manufacture of an entire line of products is outsourced, but transferring production of low-value-added products can cut costs, boost efficiency and help corporate management.”

LG to add 10,000 robots to roll out premium home appliances

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LG Electronics, South Korea`s second-biggest tech company by sales, will deploy 10,000 industrial robots to reshape its Changwon production site into a smart factory for premium home appliances, sources said on Wednesday.

The smart factory project will be completed by 2023 and the robots will be sourced from Robostar, a local robot company acquired by LG Electronics last year. LG Electronics is also closely working with several other industry robot manufacturers including Epson.

The new factory will be a follow-up of the company’s U.S. washing machine plant which became up and running last year in the state of Tennessee to show the world’s highest level in factory automation and digitalization. The factory boasts of an integrated production system that spans parts manufacturing and module assembly to product shipment through robots.

LG Electronics controls one third of Robostar, which is known for its prominent technologies in making robots for factory automation. Vertical multi-articulated robots from Robostar are already used in LG’s production line to make automotive parts in Incheon.

The new factory being built in Changwon will enter operation in 2021 gradually before its completion in 2023 to churn out LG-branded premium household appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers and water purifiers.

LG Electronics will apply an integrated control system to the factory by bringing full automation and intelligence to the entire production chain from purchasing to production, to quality inspection and logistics in order to maximize operational excellence and value creation. Once completed, the factory’s production capacity is expected to reach 3 million units a year, 50 percent higher than the current maximum capacity of 2 million units.

Electrolux Q2 Interim Report 2019:

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Highlights of the second quarter of 2019

Net sales amounted to SEK 31,687m (31,354). Sales decline of 2.7%, driven by lower volumes.
Operating income amounted to SEK 1,619m (827), corresponding to a margin of 5.1% (2.6). The comparison period included non-recurring items of SEK -818m.
Price increases fully offset the headwinds from higher raw material costs, trade tariffs and currency as well as lower volumes. Mix improvements mitigated higher investments in marketing and R&D.
Operating cash flow after investments amounted to SEK 384m (1,805).
Income for the period increased to SEK 1,132m (517), and earnings per share was SEK 3.94 (1.80).
The Board has reconfirmed its plan to propose to the shareholders that the Professional Products business area is distributed to the shareholders with the aim to achieve listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm during the first quarter of 2020 or, at the latest, the second quarter of 2020.
President and CEO Jonas Samuelson’s comment

A strong focus on innovation to improve consumer experiences is our guiding compass and a key driver for profitable growth. It is therefore encouraging to see that we once again have a favorable earnings impact from improved mix by selling more high-margin products and we continue to invest in marketing to support the major launches we have this year. Concurrently, price increases continued to offset strong headwinds from higher raw material costs, trade tariffs and currency, and in this quarter also from volume decline. The lower volume was mainly caused by the U.S. private label sales drop. Underlying operating income was in line with last year.

The earnings for our operations in Europe and Professional Products were once again solid and operating income in Latin America increased significantly. In North America, positive price and mix offset higher costs from raw materials and trade tariffs but not fully the volume decline. The business area Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa was impacted by currency headwind and weak sales in Australia.

We re-confirm our market view for 2019 with the exception of Southeast Asia where we now estimate the demand in the region to be slightly positive.

Based on current trade tariff levels, we estimate the negative year-over-year impact from raw materials, trade tariffs and currency to be approximately SEK 1.4-1.6bn in 2019, compared to the previous estimate of approximately SEK 1.7-1.9bn. In the first half of 2019, price has fully offset this headwind and we expect that to be the case also for 2019 as a whole. The uncertainty on trade tariffs continues to impact our visibility.

The preparations for the intended separation and subsequent listing of the Professional Products business area are proceeding according to plan. As the previously announced reasons for the separation are still considered valid the Board has reconfirmed its plan to propose to the shareholders that the Professional Products business area is distributed to the shareholders with the aim to achieve listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm during the first quarter of 2020 or, at the latest, the second quarter of 2020.

Electrolux 100th year is a product launch intensive year and I believe our innovation power will continue to strengthen our competiveness. In addition to significant kitchen range launches in Europe and Asia-Pacific, we have sharpened our offering by being the first to bring Air Fry technology built in to the cooker to the North American market. Looking ahead, I am confident that we are well positioned to create value through our profitable growth strategy.

Franke Group acquired a majority stake in Italian coffee machine manufacturer Dalla Corte

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Swiss Franke Group acquired a majority stake in Italian coffee machine manufacturer Dalla Corte at the end of June.

The Milan-based Dalla Corte produces traditional portafilter espresso machines in the premium segment for private and professional use. The company was founded by the Dalla Corte family in 2001 and is known for its multi-boiler technology – developed and patented in the same year – which Franke calls a benchmark for the semi-automatic espresso machine sector.