Whirlpool will export to 100 countries from Mexico

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Whirlpool announces investment of 120 million dollars to expand its Ramos Arizpe plant and increase production; 90% will go to the US and Canada, says the regional president of the firm.

Whirlpool, a world manufacturer of kitchen and laundry appliances, announced an investment of 120 million dollars in Mexico, in order to consolidate its presence in the country. In an interview with 

Juan Carlos Puente, president of Whirlpool for Latin America North, explained that they continue to “work hard to continue fulfilling our mission as a company and to continue to be number one in the kitchen and laundry, in this constant search to improve the quality of life of all consumers in your home ”. 

The capital will be for the Ramos Arizpe plant, Coahuila; Specifically, 10 million dollars will be to increase the production capacity of side by side refrigerators (SXS) by 10 percent from 2022 and 130 direct jobs will be generated.

The amount of 110 million dollars that will be used in the period 2021-2024 is to create the production line of french door refrigerators (French door, with the freezer at the bottom), whose unit volume will be more than 300 thousand per year.

The manufacturing warehouse will have an expansion of 30 thousand square meters and will allow the creation of a thousand jobs, in addition to the 2,945 already existing. In addition, a supply of components and the domestic raw material is expected similar to the current one, which is higher than 60 percent. 

“A large amount of what we are doing in Ramos Arizpe is for export, for the United States and Canada, we speak of over 90 percent of this investment goes to those parts, and the rest for  Mexico,  Latin America, and other parts of the world. We export to more than 100 countries from here and we want to continue expanding our horizons ”, explained Puente. 

He added that since the confinement due to the pandemic, the company has had a significant increase in demand for products on a global scale, which has given them the opportunity to interact more with consumers and better meet their needs. 

“In the medium and long term the demand for white goods will continue to be very strong, this puts us a milestone in being able to increase capacities in all plants in Mexico and other parts of the world,” he said.

Like other players in the sector, Whirlpool – which according to market researcher Euromonitor International has around 30 percent of the national market – has faced rising prices for its inputs and a shortage of chips. 

“Not all supply chains are working perfectly, that is an issue that we have had practically since the covid-19 and we think it will continue, we have components such as resins, steels, plastics, micro components. One has different market dynamics, some of us think that it will be solved in the short term and others even believe that until the summer of next year, as is the case with microchips ”.

This year Whirlpool Corporation will celebrate 110 years of being a benchmark in the kitchen and laundry appliance manufacturing sector. In Mexico it has five production plants: three in Apodaca, Nuevo León for the production of refrigerators, washing machines, components, and plastics; another for stoves, compact refrigerators, and semi-automatic washing machines in Celaya, Guanajuato; and one of the duplex refrigerators in Ramos Arizpe .“ 

Whirlpool has invested in Mexico since before the pandemic; We are the third most important country in manufacturing for the company, in terms of sales we can be the sixth, seventh or eighth country; The assets we have here are extremely important, ”said the manager.

Smart products

In 2017 Whirlpool acquired the startup Yummly in Silicon Valley, a purchase with which they sought to promote the smart items segment, a trend that they claim they still see as an opportunity for growth. “For it to be massive, there is still time, as technology becomes cheaper, many people will be able to try that kind of thing more and with the pandemic, people want to have a better product in their home to get much more out of it and this opens the way for us. door so that more connected products can be sold ”

Source: milenio.com

Mexico Daily Post