Electrolux boss’ role is scrapped

Electrolux UK brand and marketing director Andy Mackay is leaving the company after 19 years. His departure follows a major restructure of the company’s European management team.

The Swedish consumer electronics company has scrapped Mackay’s role and is creating a new role that will include European responsibilities and product line management. It is recruiting for the new position.

The restructure has also led to the promotion of Roger Taylor, vice-president and managing director of UK and Ireland, to vice-president of sales for Electrolux Major Appliances Europe last month (MW April 19). His previous role is being overseen by finance director Peter Messetter, but it is seeking a permanent replacement.

Mackay has held a variety of roles at the company, including outdoor products marketing manager. He was appointed to the new role of brand and marketing director for outdoor and home products in 2003 (MW June 19, 2003) and moved to oversee major appliances after the company demerged its outdoor products division at the start of 2006 (MW September 15, 2005).

He was a key part of the team that introduced dual-branding across its AEG and Zanussi brands, as well as strengthening the position of the Electrolux brand in the UK. Last month, he launched the Global Design range, the first Electrolux range to extend across the cooking, cooling and washing categories.

Electrolux has suffered from increasing production overheads in recent years. In 2003, it cut 5,000 jobs citing declining demand and higher material costs. In 2005, it blamed production costs for a decision to move its Swedish factory to Hungary and it has relocated many of its North American and European plants to Asia and Mexico.

It reined back its partnership with Toshiba to reduce the number of product lines it is marketing worldwide. Sales in 2005 dropped to $16.3bn (£8.2bn) from $18.3bn (£9.2) the previous year.