Whirlpool Corporation has reported its financial results for Q2 2023 and although revenue was up over the previous quarter, it was down on the same quarter last year.
The appliance giant announced a 3.1% improvement over its Q1 sales figures, with net sales of $4.79 billion (£3.74bn) compared with the $4.65bn reported earlier this year.
It also reported Q2 pre-tax profits (EBIT). of $352 million, which is a 40.2% improvement over last quarter’s $251m profit figure.
Whirlpool returned $193m in dividends to its corporate shareholders in the first half of 2023, with the price-per-share increasing by 58.3% over the previous quarter. 2023 also represents its 68th consecutive year of dividend returns to shareholders.
However, despite the positive improvement over its Q1 performance, Whirlpool’s year-on-year sales were down by 6% from $5.1bn in Q2 of 2022. Similarly, Whirlpool’s Q2 $350m profit figure was 23.6% lower than its Q2 2022 figure of $460m.
The company attributed the decline in year-on-year sales to the market normalising to near pre-pandemic levels, which it says were “largely absent during the first half of 2022”. However, it also says this was partially offset by share gains, as well as the addition of InSinkErator to its portfolio, which it bought in September 2022.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2023, the company says it is still expecting annual net sales of approximately $19.4 billion.
Whirlpool’s chairman and chief executive Marc Bitzer commented: “We continue to build on our momentum with sequentially improved margins in Q2. Our portfolio transformation towards a higher-growth, higher-margin business is well underway, and we are well-positioned to benefit from housing-driven demand recovery, including now having 8 of the top 10 US national builders as trade customers.”
Last month, the company also announced it had appointed a new managing director to head up its UK and Ireland division.