WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)–Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. (FPA.NZ), a New Zealand-based home appliance maker, will be pursing more distribution deals like the one it announced Tuesday with global appliance giant Whirlpool Corp. (WHR), Fisher’s managing director said.
Fisher & Paykel announced Tuesday that Whirlpool will market and distribute Fisher & Paykel “DishDrawer” dishwashers in the U.S. under the Whirlpool brand name.
The deal follows a handful of similar deals the two companies have struck since forming a “global alliance” in August last year, and Fisher & Paykel managing director John Bongard said his company is keen to pursue more.
“We’re actively discussing with Whirlpool on a regular basis various opportunities for both companies,” he told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
Bongard’s comments came after Fisher & Paykel Appliances upgraded its net profit forecast for the financial year ending Mar. 31, 2004 to between NZ$80 million and NZ$85 million, up from its former prediction of a similar performance to the previous full year’s NZ$73.5 million net profit.
Bongard said the rise is due to a good performance from the Farmers Finance business, which it bought in October last year, and better appliance sales.
“It’s a continuation of what’s been quite strong demand here in New Zealand and in Australia and also our U.S. sales have continued to grow quite strongly,” he said, adding that while all of the company’s appliances did well, the DishDrawer did particularly well.
The company is hoping the Whirlpool deal will increase U.S. sales of the DishDrawer – a washer that stores the dishes in separate drawers that can operate independently – but Bongard wouldn’t say by how much.
“We haven’t put any numbers on it yet,” he said, adding that the company will have a better idea after a trade show in Chicago next month.
Despite the Whirlpool deal, which begins at the end of this year, Fisher & Paykel will continue to sell DishDrawers under its own name. It will keep some finishes and shapes of draw fronts unique to its own brand and won’t initially be offering single drawer dishwashers to Whirlpool.
“I just think the market’s big enough for both of us,” said Bongard.
While the company currently earns roughly 20% of its revenue in the U.S., its sales there are very low relative to the size of the market. In the six months to Sept. 30 3002, Fisher & Paykel had U.S. sales of 72,400 appliances of all types, not just dishwashers
“The advantage of Whirlpool and their brand is that they are a well known, trusted brand in the United States,” said Bongard.
“It’ll be interesting to see how those products go with a more familiar brand name attached to them.”
Bongard said he couldn’t reveal whether savings on marketing, distribution and warehousing costs of DishDrawers sold to Whirlpool will offset the discount the U.S. appliances company will likely get.
“We’re quite happy with the deal that we’ve struck with them,” he said.
From Yahoo Singapore