“This was a difficult but necessary decision to maintain our competitiveness and innovation,” Billy Benson, vice-president of operations with Elecrolux, said in a statement. “It allows us to continue to provide consumers quality products that are competitively priced.”

Final closure of the manufacturing facility in L'Assomption, Quebec, is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013. Production of cooking appliances would be moved from the facility in a suburb of Montreal to a lower-cost facility starting in 2012.

The Swedish company -- the world's second-largest home appliance maker after the US firm Whirlpool -- reported a 15-percent drop in quarterly profit in October saying it had suffered from a sales fall in its main markets, in Europe and mainly the United States.

The company has closed many sites recently, in France, Italy, Spain and the United States, and also in Russia and in China.

Billy Benson noted that many major appliance manufacturers have reduced their cost structures by establishing cooking product manufacturing facilities in lower cost markets.

"Apart from the challenges of the recession, consumers are demanding competitively-priced products featuring the latest technologies, requiring manufacturers to continually reinvest in product innovation while managing costs", he said.

 

Find top executive jobs in Sweden and Europe: Join network for free!