Appliance Industry
By Ruben Mata

Major household appliance firms in the United States first set up manufacturing subsidiaries or joint ventures in Canada and Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s, to overcome tariff barriers in supplying their products to these markets.

Subsequent U.S. trade agreements with Canada (1989) and Mexico (1994) made it possible for major appliance firms to implement manufacturing strategies of cost reduction through consolidation and rationalization of production across national boundaries throughout North America. Improved efficiencies and price competitiveness among North American producers of major appliances have largely discouraged imports from Europe and Asia into the U.S. and Canadian markets. This article profiles the leading major appliance producers in North America and examines changes in their manufacturing strategies in response to competitive pressures to reduce costs and expand market shares.

The United States, the world’s largest single-country market for household appliances, is dominated by five companies: General Electric-Appliance Group (GE), Whirlpool Corp., Electrolux (makers of Frigidaire and Westinghouse brands), Maytag Corp., and Goodman Industries (Amana). U.S. producers’ shipments (chiefly major appliances) totaled $23.1 billion in 1999, of which $5.5 billion was exported to foreign markets (principally to Canada and Mexico). Each of the leading firms produces a full line of major appliances: refrigerators, freezers, gas and electric stoves, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers. In 1999, these firms accounted for approximately 98 percent of total U.S. production of major household appliances. Major appliances have changed only slightly over recent decades, and there is little to differentiate one manufacturer’s products from another. As a result...

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