Whirlpool 2010 Annual Report Download - page 36

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FIN ANCI AL S UMMA RY
The following is a summary of Whirlpool Corporation’s finan-
cial condition and results of operations for 2010, 2009 and
2008. For a more complete understanding of our financial con-
dition and results, this summary should be read together with
Whirlpool Corporation’s Consolidated Financial Statements and
related notes, and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis.”
This information appears in the Financial Supplement to the
Company’s Proxy Statement and in the Financial Supplement to
the 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commis sion, both of which are also available
through the Internet at www.whirlpoolcorp.com.
ABOU T WH IRL PO OL
Whirlpool Corporation (“Whirlpool”) is the world’s leading manu-
facturer of major home appliances with revenues over $18 billion
and net earnings available to Whirlpool of $619 million in 2010.
We are a leading producer of major home appliances in North
America and Latin America and have a significant presence in
markets throughout Europe and India. We have received world-
wide recognition for accomplishments in a variety of business
and social efforts, including leadership, diversity, innovative
product design, business ethics, social responsibility and com-
munity involvement. We conduct our business through four
reportable segments, which we define based on geography. Our
reportable segments consist of North America, Latin America,
Europe, and Asia. Our customer base is characterized by large,
sophisticated trade customers who have many choices and
demand competitive products, services and prices. The charts
below summarize the balance of net sales by reportable segment
for 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively:
We monitor country-specific economic factors such as gross
domestic product, unemployment, consumer confidence,
retail trends, housing starts and completions, sales of existing
homes and mortgage interest rates as key indicators of industry
demand. In addition to profitability, we also focus on country,
brand, product and channel sales when assessing and forecast-
ing financial results.
Our leading portfolio of brands includes: Whirlpool, Maytag,
KitchenAid, Brastemp and Consul, each of which have annual
revenues in excess of $1 billion. Our global branded consumer
products strategy is to introduce innovative new products,
increase customer brand loyalty, expand our presence in foreign
markets, enhance our trade management platform, improve total
cost and quality by expanding and leveraging our global operat-
ing platform and where appropriate, make strategic acquisitions
and investments.
In addition, as we grow revenues from our core products, our
strategy is to extend our core business by offering products or
services that are dependent on and related to our core business
and expand beyond the core into adjacent products through
stand-alone businesses that leverage our core competencies and
core business infrastructure.
2010 OVER VIE W
Whirlpool and the appliance industry as a whole faced signifi-
cant macroeconomic challenges across much of the world in
2010. We experienced strong signs of global economic recovery
during the first six months of 2010 with higher than expected
demand complemented by stable currencies, input costs and
appliance pricing. However, during the second half of 2010 we
experienced a significant slowing in sales growth, especially in
North America, increased material costs and competitive global
pricing pressure. Despite these challenging market conditions,
we experienced volume increases in all geographic regions
compared to 2009, especially in our Latin America region
where unit volumes increased more than 16% compared to
2009, and our Asia region where unit volumes increased more
than 22% compared to 2009.
Competition in the home appliance industry remained intense
in all global markets we serve. In addition to our traditional
competitors Electrolux, General Electric, and Kenmore in North
America, the emerging global competitors: LG, Bosch Siemens,
Samsung and Haier, have contributed to an increasingly com-
petitive pricing environment. We believe that our productivity
and cost controls and new innovative product introductions will
enhance our ability to respond to these competitive conditions.
Despite these challenging business conditions, Whirlpool’s
ongoing focus on cost reductions, productivity and innovative
new product launches continues to enable Whirlpool to adapt
to changes in the macroeconomic environment. We experienced
branded share growth in most markets we serve fueled by our
consumer-relevant innovations and our key new product launches,
which continue to be well-received by consumers. Consolidated
net sales increased 7.4% compared to 2009 and our consolidated
gross margin increased to 14.8% of net sales, an improvement
of 0.8 points compared to 2009.
During the year, Whirlpool remained focused on cost reduction
and productivity initiatives to offset higher material costs and on
continuing to bring consumer relevant innovation to reduce the
impact of the unfavorable price/mix environment.
Sales by Region
Europe,
Middle East,
Africa
21%
200820092010
Europe,
Middle East,
Africa
19%
Europe,
Middle East,
Africa
17%
North
America
55%
North
America
57%
North
America
53%
Latin
America
19%
Latin
America
22%
Latin
America
25%
Asia
3%
Asia
5% Asia
8%
Asia
4%