‘Never have I seen more opportunities for our global business…’

Hi-fi Analysis Update
‘Never have
I seen more
opportunities
for our global
business…’
Whirlpool chairman and chief executive Jeff
Fettig talks to Simon King about his vision
for the future following the acquisition of the
Indesit Company last year
EXCLUSIVE
Jeff Fettig
Jeff Fettig has a very clear vision for the
Whirlpool Corporation – to be “the best
global, branded consumer products
company in the world”.
As chairman and chief executive, he was pivotal in
the talks leading to Whirlpool Corporation’s $1 billion
acquisition of the Indesit Company at the end of last
year. An acquisition that marked the exit of Indesit’s
founding Merloni family – one of Italy’s most prominent
industrial dynasties.
Mr Fettig was speaking exclusively to ERT Ireland
in his 42nd floor penthouse suite at the Hotel Arts
in Barcelona, Spain, where last month Whirlpool
brought together its regional executives from Europe,
Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 300 key European
trade customers in Barcelona, Spain, for its Leading
Change event.
This was the first opportunity for the company’s newly
announced leadership organisation, which includes
Fergus Johnston, Whirlpool Ireland’s managing director,
who will lead the integration of the two Dublin-based
businesses.
In the case of the UK & Ireland, Mr Fettig said that
integration would be completed within 2015, with the
management team now in place.
Mr Fettig said: “Business in the UK and Ireland has
got off to yet another good start in the market – the
UK and Ireland economies are probably more on the
positive side of most.
“Globally, we’ve just finished a record year. We now
have a lot of work to do this year with the integration of
two acquisitions.”
In addition to the acquisition of Indesit Company,
Whirlpool Corporation also acquired a majority stake in
the Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric Company, a leading
home appliances manufacturer based in Hefei, China.
Mr Fettig continued: “From a market standpoint,
probably the two best economies we see in the world
today are the United States and India. Europe is
progressing and we are seeing some market growth,
which is good. The UK, France and Russia are the top
markets for us in the EMEA.
“We expect to have another record year this year, but
there is a lot of volatility, which is currently challenging
any global company – we’re no exception. The euro a
year ago was $1.40 to a $1; yesterday it was $1.07; the
Russian ruble has halved – our small business in Ukraine
devalued by 70 per cent in one day; and our huge
business in Brazil has been affected by the Brazilian real,
which has devalued by more than 20 per cent this year.
“This is a fact of life – we’ve been a global company
for a long time, so we know how to manage through
it, but it puts a lot of challenges on our business. But
we’ll figure it out.”
Excited
Explaining further his vision for Whirlpool, Mr Fettig
added: “We believe in building great brands. I’m very
excited about the power of our brands. Hotpoint is an
outstanding brand in the UK and several other markets.
Whirlpool is a world leader in several markets and Indesit
is a well-recognised value brand across Europe. And we
are growing very rapidly our super-premium business
with KitchenAid. The end result is that in markets like
the UK and Ireland, we’re going to be able to offer a
portfolio to serve the entire market rather than just a
piece of the market.”
“Over the last two days, it’s the first time we’ve had
all the management teams all together. It’s been a pretty
exciting week for us – this is it,” he said.
“I’ve been with the Whirlpool Corporation for 34
years; never in my career have I seen more opportunities
for our global business than I see today. So from that
standpoint, absolutely, this is the best time ever. I was
quite supportive of us making a very major investment in
Europe in buying Indesit – it’s something we had talked
about and thought about for well over a decade, so
when the opportunity came up, we were very keen to
Hotel Arts, Barcelona
6 · April 2015
www.ERTIreland.ie · ERT
006-007_Analysis_ERTIr_April15.indd 6 30/03/2015 15:00