Customers buy new fridges, stoves and large household items when they’re feeling good about their finances and prospects.
That’s why home appliance giant Whirlpool can be a great gauge of the health of the consumer. Signs aren’t good with shares of the company are down 5% today on soft earnings and revenue.
Whirlpool also cut its forecasts. Some of that was related to acquisitions and other factors but lower sales were the big reason. In North America the company cut its forecast to 5% this year from 5%-7% while leaving its forecast for EMEA unchanged at o%-2%.
The big surprise might be larger forecast cuts in emerging markets with Latam sales forecast down 3% from flat and Asia forecast flat from +3%.
It’s interesting to check that against rival Electrolux who said last week that the Latam environment had deteriorated further, forecast US appliance market growth of 4% (along with citing some improvement) and forecast European growth of 1-3%. Those forecasts are very similar to Whirlpool.
What stands out for me is that on the upside, you could have European sales growth at 3% with US sales up 4%. That isn’t much difference in a year when the US was expected to accelerate and Europe to continue to languish.
