Posted on 08/14/2014 4:19:02 PM PDT by Olog-hai
General Electric confirmed that it is considering the sale of its historic appliance division, part of its effort to focus on selling more complex and profitable industrial equipment.
The confirmation came after the Swedish appliance maker Electrolux released a statement Thursday that it was in discussions to buy the business from GE, which is based in Fairfield, Connecticut. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
“GE appliances are sold mostly in the U.S., making it difficult to compete with more global competitors such as LG and Samsung, which have been expanding into the U.S. in recent years.”
Fixed it
GE makes some of the worst appliances.
Appliances (Frigidaire) was one of the first businesses GM was driven out of in the late 70s. Paying UAW level wages (the employees were actually IUE union but had a parity contract clause relative to UAW) made them totally uncompetitive in the industry.
GE pretty much offshored everything else.
How are they going to make complex and profitable industrial equipment when they can’t even make appliances that last?
They sell historic appliances?
/johnny
When I need to replace an appliance the first thing is to know what I am looking at isn’t GE, or associated with GE. I have despised GE for many, many years, and will never buy GE.
I'm not a fan of GE, but consumer appliances is a pretty ruthless cost competition, especially with the Chinese in the game.
Stuff like locomotives and aircraft engines is a lot different. Lots of proprietary engineering and manufacturing processes.
The last several GE appliances I bought were made in China. They lasted about 4 years before breaking down, and repair was going to b4 90% of a new appliance.
As far as I am concerned, they got put of the Appliance business when they quit manufacturing in USA. They adopted the Pier One retail model, just import foreign junk, buy low-sell high and laugh all the way to the bank.
GE makes some of the worst appliances.
In the past GE appliances were among the best.
“They sell historic appliances?”
Haven’t you seen the new gasoline powered ringer washers this year?
They brought good things to light...
Bought a brand new home. All GE appliance. The only thing that hasn’t needed to repaired or replaced is the disposal... literally.
I worked for GE Transportation as a field supervisor on the BNSF account, providing technical direction and parts for maintenance and repair of GE diesel locomotives. I could really go off about the corporate culture... but sticking to the "lean warehousing" (read as unavailability) of the simplest of parts... Thomas Edison, founder of GE invented the light bulb... but even if we had any, the damned headlight bulbs were Phillips bulbs made in China. I was seriously not impressed with the engineered durability of the newer locomotives... hard metal conduit for wiring to step lights and reservoir blowdowns was replaced with cheap junk split corrugated plastic wire looming. Sheet metal was lighter gauge... more plastic gilhoulies to break and then wait 2 days for parts and replace an entire starting switch assembly... or worse... be forced to waste labor "stealing parts" off of other units... I don't work for GE now... there simply was no way to have pride in the product... and if I tried to do the right thing and actually address Federal Safety Standard compliance issues, I was always left to fight my position holding the federal regs on the behalf of the customer... fighting with my own brainwsshed team that knew nothing about the actual business of railroading.
I don't miss it.
Dang!
GE was my 1st Fortune 500 account and they really helped me early in my career, even introducing me to their customers where they thought I could help.
GE Appliances has not quit manufacturing in the USA.
They recently invested $1B to expand their Louisville KY plant.
They make top freezer,built-in and French door refrigerators in the USA.
They make front loading washing machines and dryers in the USA.
They make their pro-style ranges in the USA.
Most of their non-USA manufacturing is now in Mexico.
Rising labor cost in China and transportation cost from China is returning large appliance manufacture to North America.
I have the opposite view.
Based on my current home, bought in 2001. It was built in 1974 and the small GE under counter microwave must have been at least 5 years old when I moved in
I have had and replaced three top of the line large microwaves in the last 13 years, and that little GE just keeps on waving. And its function buttons are the most intuitive I have run across.
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