When it comes to manufacturing job losses in our state, Gov. Jennifer Granholm frequently points to Electrolux, an appliance manufacturer that laid off thousands of workers.
Michigan appliance dealers who sell those appliances face a dilemma when it comes to Electrolux. ABC12’s Joel Feick went to Chicago to talk to company officials about the situation.
For Electrolux, it was like opening night on Broadway. At the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, it brought in one of the hosts of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
There was a cake shaped like the Queen Mary II and plenty of media, all to show off the company’s latest appliances. But there was another sell job also going on: getting Americans to buy into the Electrolux name.
“They’re not familiar, but we’re stressing our 70 years experience in the finest homes and restaurants in Europe coming to the U.S.,” said Electrolux Director John Swenson.
The company is co-branding appliances with the more familiar Frigidaire name. But it may have to do more than that in Michigan, where a recent plant closing caught the eye of the governor.
“I like to start with Electrolux, which had a factory on the west side of the state,” Granholm said. “It lost 2,700 jobs.”
In Chicago, company officials wanted to talk about their new appliances.
“We’re going to introduce a new convection wall over with the coolest door in the industry,” Swenson said.
But not about the plant closing.
The place was dripping with PR people. Hordes of people from Electrolux were at the show just for the media. But about this issue, no one wanted to talk.
Pat and Fred Savage from Bay City have been selling them for 12 years. They say while the appliances are high quality, recent news reports about Electrolux job loses make it a tough sell.
“We are concerned about that,” Pat Savage said. “We’re not sure what we can do. When you lose your job, it’s not easy.”
The representative from Electrolux told us he’d call back with a time for an interview. He never did.
From ABC 12