Whirlpool Corporation has announced Q2 sales up by 32% thanks to ‘sustained customer demand and cost-based pricing initiatives’.
In an interview with Bloomberg, chief financial office Jim Peters, said Whirlpool had been able to offset higher costs for everything from steel to shipping and labour by raising prices by as much as 12% earlier this year.
He said he expected cost pressures to continue, saying: “We do feel that there will be some carry over from this year to next year, but pricing actions offset everything we see in front of us.”
Whirlpool Corporation, whose brands include Whirlpool, Hotpoint, Indesit, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana and Bauknecht, saw sales for the quarter to June 30 rise by nearly a third (32%) to $5.32 billion (£3.88bn) from $4.04bn, with pre-tax profits up almost 200% from $204 million in Q2 2020 to (EBIT) of $607 million (£441.5m) this year.
Breaking that down by regions, sales in North America were up 21.6% to $3.04bn, in the EMEA region they were up 49.5% to $1.25bn, in Latin America they rose 75.8% to $763m and in Asia they fell by 0.7% to $269m.
In a Q&A session after the presentation of their results, Peters addressed the question of the increase in sales against ongoing supply chain challenges. He said: “I’d say it’s a combination of things, but you have to realise also that we were starting off a very low base of inventory in terms of where we were. Around the globe, we’re in different states with our supply chain, and some of our supply chains are actually able to keep up with some of the market demand. So we’re able to build back some of the inventory – the normal buffers that we have. It’s no one particular area, but it’s just the beginning in certain countries around the world – beginning to get our inventories back to healthy levels, which we had expected to do.”
Commenting on the Q2 results, chairman and chief executive Mark Bitzer said: “We are significantly raising guidance to reflect the strength of our business driven by sustained consumer demand and the successful implementation of our previously announced cost-based pricing initiatives. Our Q2 results together with our record performance over the past three years impressively demonstrate our ability to perform in a volatile environment.”
Peters added: “We delivered double-digit revenue growth, expanded EBIT in every region across the globe, and generated significant cash flow, while navigating a challenging macroeconomic environment. Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to capitalise on the structural improvements we have made in our business over the past number of years and continue to drive shareholder value.”
Whirlpool Corporation said it expected full-year sales to be up to 16% compared with 13% the year before.
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