Rumors about changes at the top have been confirmed Haier Europe. FIRST online however, it is able to anticipate further news: an equally sensational turnover, in fact, is about to also affect another European multinational. Therefore, the change at the top of Haier Europe has arrived because he is leaving Yannick Fierling, who joined the Chinese multinational as CEO Europe: it was 2015 and he came from another top position, that of CEO of Whirlpool Europe. But Fierling's case seems not to be an isolated one and on the horizon some other "white" managers in Europe are preparing to say goodbye.
Household appliances: why Fierling left
Normal rotations? No. Rather, a rule that makes local CEOs fail when it is the financial top management of the Corporation that has adopted the wrong strategies. Fierling initiated and followed Haier's strong expansion strategy in Europe, with the most important operation, the one which in 2019 brought Candy into the corporate perimeter of the Chinese company: Candy had by now just recovered from closures and reductions in shares and activities with a cost of approximately 500 million euros. But Fierling himself had also managed demanding and ambitious investments, on the triumphal guideline of the Chinese big company which intends to beat everyone and become number 1 in Europe too. And which in the space of a few years has achieved very rapid growth up to in 2023 to 4 billion euros in turnover. Only the last of these investments, of 150 million, should have further accelerated this expansion.
Household appliances, the effects of the crisis and the relaunch of Candy
However, the crisis bites everyone and supporting investments which also involve demanding resources for sites such as, for example, Egypt and other countries is becoming a difficult path even for a financially solid giant like Haier. And for some time, despite having kept promises with the unions and politicians not to close and rather to strengthen the production capacity of historic washing machine factory of Candy, in Brugherio, the continuing decline in European sales probably requires a change of direction. And someone has already expressed the fear that the historic factory of Brugherio be downsized or even closed to transfer the production of washing machines to countries with lower production costs.
In reality today the entire Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia are experiencing the nightmare, rapidly accelerating, of a gigantic chaos on logistics, which transport spare parts, components and finished products to Europe. A chaos that can already be felt on the shelves, in the warehouses, in the accounts of the trade, of families and finally, in the billionaire ones of multinationals. And in the meantime, the growth strategy of the big Chinese is moving from majaps to air conditioning where there is a lot to invest and earn. Midea above all it has put in place several billions to strengthen its leadership in the world and in Europe and thanks to the subsidiary Clivet, an Italian jewel in which he has invested a lot, is now at the top of the ranking. Electrolux? It can wait: the decline in consumption continues to erode margins for everyone.
