Electrolux Australia and New Zealand managing director, Kurt Hegvold has announced the deployment of a sharpened and refocused blueprint, first announced in July 2022, to ensure future relevance and competitiveness for the business.
“The deployment of a sharpened and refocused blueprint is a critical step for a more efficient and competitive Electrolux,” Hegvold said in a statement shared with Appliance Retailer.
“One that is better equipped for long-term success, meeting the evolving needs and expectations of our customers and consumers in tomorrow’s dynamic landscape. This is a continuation of the effort that was started last year to remove complexities and recalibrate some positions to support smart and agile ways of working and accelerate global scale and synergy.
Hegvold explained that the refocused blueprint takes into consideration long-term needs and aims to bring further clarity to role and responsibilities.
“It also ensures we are leveraging the global and regional drivers and resources to deliver medium to long range strategic growth for our business. This ultimately translates to better services, speed and simplicity in how we provide service to our valued customers and enhanced experiences to consumers.
“Focusing on our ANZ business, it is clear in today’s rapidly evolving markets, it is vital for us to change faster than the environment around us. The dynamic markets and macroeconomic conditions across ANZ have seen consumers and retailers demanding more from us.”
Hegvold confirmed that this will impact Electrolux ANZ employees with new roles being introduced to further equip the business and some positions becoming redundant.
“Electrolux ANZ does not take actions that impact our people lightly. These are extremely difficult decisions, and we will manage through this transition with fairness, respect and care,” Hegvold said.
“Our organisational blueprint is evolving and in ANZ, we must make sure that we sharpen our focus on the right levers to continue building our business to be truly future fit. We need to become even more disciplined in elevating and resourcing our customers and consumers priorities.
“As the year progresses, we will focus on our core brands and their key portfolios to ensure we optimise and grow our market share where it has the most impact for our partners. We will focus our people and financial investment on the brands, products and activities that maximise our relevance to our customers and meet the needs of our consumers.
“With new and significant campaigns behind our Westinghouse and Electrolux brands supporting innovation launches (many made in Australia), we are poised for a strong second half and 2024 growth,” he concluded.