Sears to stop selling Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid appliances
If you are in the market for a new Whirlpool washer and dryer or Maytag dishwasher, don’t expect Sears to be the place where America shops.
For the first time in more than a century, the troubled retailer will no longer sell appliances from Whirlpool, which also makes KitchenAid, Maytag and Jenn-Air products.
In a memo sent to stores last week, Sears told employees that Whirlpool made pricing demands “that would have prohibited us from offering Whirlpool products to our members at a reasonable price,” the retailer said in a memo, a copy of which was sent to USA TODAY.
Sears will only sell what Whirlpool products are currently in inventory. The news hammered the stock prices of both companies. Sears shares fell more than 8% to close at $5.99 and Whirlpool was down almost 11% to $163.26.
Whirlpool CEO Marc Robert Bitzer said that the decision to pull the brand came in the spring.
“We did inform Sears in May that we would no longer supply Whirlpool branded products as we simply could not reach terms that are acceptable to both parties,” Bitzer said Tuesday in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
However, Bitzer said Whirlpool will continue to supply to Sears 10 appliances sold under the Kenmore brand.
Sears, founded in 1887 as Sears, Roebuck & Co., had sold Whirlpool appliances for more than a century.
Whirlpool has also made Ken- more dishwashers, washers and dryers and refrigerators. Sears declined to confirm which Kenmore appliances are produced by Whirlpool, but spokesman Howard Riefs said that “Whirlpool will continue to supply the Kenmore products it makes for us.’’
In addition to Kenmore appliances, Sears said in its memo the chain “will continue to make available top brands that members expect from us including LG, Samsung, GE, Frigidaire, Electrolux, and Bosch.”
Still, the loss of the Whirlpool brand is another sign of how Sears, a one-time retail giant that was the go-to for home appliance purchases ranging from freezers to dryers, is no longer a dominant player.
“This move seems to be isolated to a dispute over pricing so is not linked to the company’s financial woes,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of the consultancy GlobalData Retail. “That said, it is another sign that Sears is becoming less relevant in the retail market and in that sense it is unwelcome news.”
The partnership Sears and Whirlpool have through the Kenmore brand is likely to continue, says Matt Sargent, senior vice president of retail at Magid, a research-based consultancy.
But more telling — and troubling — is that Whirlpool ultimately would not budge enough on prices to make sure its branded products would continue to be sold by the iconic retailer.
“Seeing that Whirlpool is OK backing away from Sears shows ... from a size perspective, they are no longer the dominant force they once were,” Sargent says.
“Sears has entered into that box of neither being big, nor serving the high end,” he says. “If you’re neither, it’s very hard to continue.”