(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s Electrolux AB hired Yannick Fierling as its new chief executive officer starting Jan. 1, as the household appliance maker continues to grapple with weak consumer demand across many of its markets.
Fierling, 53, starts at Electrolux on Oct. 1 and will take on the formal role as CEO after a three-month handover period, according to a statement on Wednesday. Most recently, he worked as CEO for Europe at Haier Corp. and has held a number of management positions at Whirlpool Corp.
“The Haier background could also be interesting from an M&A perspective with the Chinese group having been quite active on that front,” Mads Lindegaard Rosendal, a research analyst at Danske Bank, said in a note to clients.
The departure of outgoing CEO Jonas Samuelson was announced in April, about six months after the company launched a 2.5 billion Swedish kronor ($240 million) restructuring program. In the face of stiff competition from Asia, Electrolux in October said it would reduce headcount by an additional 3,000 from a total of about 46,000. That was on top of as many as 4,000 cuts announced a year earlier.
Electrolux shares gained 4% in Stockholm trading on Wednesday afternoon, outperforming the benchmark OMX Stockholm 30 Index, which was up about half a percent.
“The board wants to reinforce and accelerate the strengths of Electrolux Group by bringing in new perspectives,” it said in the statement.
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