Sears stops selling Whirlpool products

Sears will no longer sell Whirlpool-branded appliances, curtailing a business relationship that began more than 100 years ago.

Sears said that Whirlpool’s demands would have made it difficult to sell those name-brand appliances at a competitive price.

Sears faces stiff competition from stores like Home Depot, and from Amazon.com and other online retailers. It’s been closing stores as competitors take a bigger slice of the territory it dominated for decades. In the United States, people buy most of their small appliances from Walmart, according to market research firm TraQline.

The change to the Sears-Whirlpool partnership is effective immediately and Sears is also pulling products from Whirlpool subsidiaries including Maytag, KitchenAid and Jenn-Air.

Sears said that it would sell off the remainder of its Whirlpool inventory. Its stores will now sell only its Kenmore products and other brands like LG, Samsung, GE, Frigidaire, Electrolux and Bosch.

Whirlpool’s CEO Marc Bitzer told investors Tuesday that the company could not reach terms that were “acceptable to both parties.” He said Whirlpool will continue to supply the Kenmore products it makes for Sears.

The relationship between the two companies reaches back to 1916, when Whirlpool began making wringer washers for Sears, Roebuck and Co., which operated exclusively through mail order. The company, now Sears Holdings Corp., also owns Kmart.