GE selling their appliance business

15 years ago

For those of you who may have missed it on the news, GE is getting out of the appliance business. There's a thread on this over on the appliance forum (see link below)

I know many of us on the kitchen forum might be planning on installing GE appliances, so I thought I should bring this to everyone's attention, so there are no surprises. A lot will depend on who buys the business, but if you don't want to take the risk, you may want to consider switching to another brand...

Here is a link that might be useful: GE selling appliance business

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Comments (8)

pupwhipped
15 years ago
oh, and me with ALL new GE appliances for my remodel. Where is that piece of paper with "stupid" written on it? I need to tape it on my forehead now!
laurap_2007
15 years ago
You're not the only one. I just redid my kitchen and almost all the appliances are GE.
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I have spent so much time on GW asking for advice and after much research AND because I spent so much time asking for help here and it took me so long to decide AND my DH would go crazy if I changed my mind, I am still going to go with the GE Monogram DBL ovens. I love the glide racks and knobs and it just seems to have everything I want, except convection conversion. Also, my DH says not to worry about the GE auction, buy-out, merger, whatever it ends up to be and I trust him...hope he's right! Good luck.
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Although very likely, a sale isn't a certainty yet - GE is also considering a joint venture with another company (LG? Haier?) that would extend their reach internationally. CEO Jeff Immelt, who himself worked his way up through the appliance division, is bothered that GEA is predominantly an American business and thus unable to match the profitability and reach of other manufacturers with global markets. Many of these (LG, Samsung, Bosch, Electrolux, Haier) are rapidly eating into the US market. The implosion of the housing bubble (and the remodeling boom it spawned) is hurting sales too, but no appliance manufacturer can afford to continually enter and exit the market depending on the year's housing market. A spin-off is another possibility. If they are to sell, they need to find a buyer. Haier, which made an unsuccessful bid for Maytag a few years ago, now has another shot, as do the several venture capitalist firms that made bids. And whereas Maytag was a money pit with increasingly shoddy quality control and an aging product line built in unprofitable factories (as Whirlpool rapidly found out), GE Appliances is actually making money. All they're really saying now is that they have started a "strategic review" of the business, which is corporatespeak for "please, somebody buy me out!". It is highly likely that they'll license the "GE" brand and logo to the buyer, just as they did with their TV sets decades ago - any recognisable brand name lives forever nowadays. In any case, the appliance business is just a drop in the bucket in today's GE, which prefers big-margin businesses nowadays.
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I posted about this earlier, I'm not happy about it at all. Now we only have one American owned mainstream appliance manufacturer, and three total mainstream companies manufacturing in the US. About a decade ago, GE led the way in outsourcing to Mexico and China. They had serious quality issues with their fridges and laundry. Their cooking products were always excellent. Their dishwashers were well made, but only average performers. But then in 2011 they completely redesigned their heat pump water heaters and moved production from China to the US. In 2012 they resigned their bottom mount fridges and moved production from Mexico to the US, and made a huge investment in their existing US dishwasher factory to built a new line that used less outsourced parts and cleaned much, much better. In 2013 they came out with a completely new front load washer design and moved production from China to the US, came out with a completely new wall oven design, pouring tons of money into that factory in the process, and came out with a brand new Monogram bottom freezer fridge, moving production from Slovenia to the US. They also pumped quite a bit of money into their existing American top freezer factory during these years. Electrolux closed a Michigan SxS fridge plant in 2006, an Iowa laundry factory in 2011. All the work went to Mexico. They did recently move high end cooking production from Canada to the US, but there was no real innovation or attempt to improve quality associated with that move, they were just trying to pay lower wages. I'm sure the only reason it didn't go to Mexico was because they were sick of people canceling their orders on fridges because the shipments were held up by cartels. There is far too much badge engineering going on in the appliance industry today (yes, I'm talking about you, Whirlpool) and not enough real innovation. In fact most of the interesting new products I'm seeing are coming from the niche high end manufacturers, whose offerings the average consumer could care less about.
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Disclaimer: I work for GE (in their railroad business - not to do with appliances) I have owned a GE French Door refrigerator since last year and it has worked fabulously. No problems whatsoever. We love the stainless finish, the LED lights, the space, the bottom freezer, etc. Just to hedge my bet, I got a 4 year performance guarantee. I bought GE washer/dryer 10 years ago and they are still going strong. My brother bought GE dual fuel gas range 3 years ago (through me) and he has been very happy. While they might not be the best, I have had good luck with them. However, stay away from the lower priced products from most manufacturers. One of my friends bought a house 4 years ago with builder grade GE appliances and they are all rusted!!
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User
15 years ago
Are you kidding? I have all GE and I bought GE because they service their own appliances. Not anymore I guess.
atlbeardie
Original Author
15 years ago
I'm somewhat in the same boat. Our lake house is in a rather remote part of the western North Carolina mountains and it is difficult to get "exotic" brands of appliances serviced. For this reason I had been planning on getting a 48" GE Monogram professional range, which is made by DCS. I purchased the matching hood in advance of the buying range because I stumbled upon a great buy on one. I thought, "what's the harm/risk in doing this early?" Who would have ever thought that GE would get out of the appliance business? Anyway, now I'll have a GE hood, but will probably have to go with DCS's range. And I've got to find out if the closest appliance repair facility will service DCS. Grrrrr.
heimert
15 years ago
I wouldn't get ahead of yourselves. First off, GE is only starting to explore the sale. sEcond, they're selling the entire business, not closing it. Some buyer will buy all the factories, employees, know-how, designs, etc. and keep running the business. They may even get to use the GE name (at least for a while). GE has just decided that someone else can probably make more money at appliances than they can, not that the business should be closed.
jeanar
15 years ago
Tell me that's just a rumor! Please! I'm getting the "friends and family" discount and that's the only reason we're going with GE. It was one decision I didn't fret over. I wonder what will happen to GE family now?!! Argghh!
lowspark
15 years ago
I heard that this morning as well. I don't think it's anything to really panic about, they're looking to sell as opposed to just closing it down. It's not ideal of course but might not be as dire as it sounds. I have a GE oven which had to be serviced once about a year and a half after installation (it's almost 4 yrs old now).

Probably if I were remodeling now and still picking out appliances I'd stay away from GE but I think it shouldn't be that big a deal to get repairs on them even in the future for those already purchased.

Last time this kind of thing happened was in 2006 when Whirlpool bought out Maytag. I wonder if this caused any major problems with existing Maytag appliances.

Here is a link that might be useful: article on ge appliances
dalcolli
15 years ago
Never would have thought GE would do this, we have a plant in town and I wonder what will happen with it (also have a Ford plant and you can imagine the frequent layoff news we already hear).

For anyone willing to risk it, could be some good deals.

GE selling their appliance business

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pupwhipped

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GE selling their appliance business

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