Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd., New Zealand’s biggest home appliance maker, plans by August to start selling refrigerators in the U.S., where its sales have grown an average 34 percent the past two years.
Fisher & Paykel displayed its refrigerators in the U.S. for the first time at the annual Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Chicago earlier this month, John Bongard, managing director of the Auckland-based company’s appliances unit, said in an interview.
The company expects to sell “a few thousand” of the refrigerators annually in the U.S., mostly to upscale apartment dwellers in areas such as Boston, New York and Orlando, the 49- year-old Bongard said. In 2003 it sold 108,700 appliances in the U.S., its third-largest market after Australia and New Zealand.
Fisher & Paykel, which last month extended a global alliance with Whirlpool Corp. to sell one of the New Zealand manufacturer’s dishwashers in the U.S. under the brand of the world’s biggest appliance maker, is seeking to trim reliance on New Zealand and Australia, where it gets 76 percent of sales and faces rivalry from LG Group and Qingdao Haier Co.
The refrigerators will probably sell for $999 to $1099 in the U.S. compared with about A$1399 ($1031) in Australia and NZ$1699 ($1082) to NZ$1799 in New Zealand, Bongard said.
Fisher & Paykel stock, which has handed investors an 84 percent return the past 12 months, yesterday closed unchanged at NZ$4.40 in Wellington trading.
The company expects to sell its first SmartLoad dryer in the U.S. in June at $799, Bongard said. Feedback from retailers at last year’s Kitchen and Bath show prompted Bongard to double production of the dryers to meet U.S. demand.
Michigan-based Whirlpool will start selling Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer dishwashers under its own brand in the U.S. from December, Bongard said. At the Chicago trade fair, Whirlpool was marketing the DishDrawers at $1,499, which is $100 to $150 more than an equivalent Fisher & Paykel brand, Bongard said.
Whirlpool will customize the front face of its units and use a different layout for the interior, Bongard told a briefing of analysts last month. Fisher & Paykel expects to boost sales by selling its products to customers loyal to Whirlpool, he said.
In fiscal 2003, Fisher & Paykel’s U.S. sales rose 15 percent in U.S. dollar terms, following a 53 percent rise in 2002. The company is scheduled to release earnings for the year ended March 31 on May 20.
From Bloomberg