GE Appliances is an appliance company headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. It is owned by Haier, a Chinese conglomerate. It is one of the largest appliance brands in the United States and manufacturers appliances under the brands of GE, Profile, Cafe, Monogram, and Hotpoint. The company owns FirstBuild, a global co-creation community and state-of-the-art micro-factory in Louisville, Kentucky.
The company was owned by General Electric until 2016, and was previously known as GE Appliances & Lighting and GE Consumer & Industrial. Haier has the right to use the GE brand name until 2056.
As of June 2017, the company had a 14% market share in the home appliance market in the United States.
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History
Originally part of General Electric, GE Appliances was created as a stand-alone business. In January 2004, it became part of GE Consumer & Industrial when GE Consumer Products (founded in 1905) merged with GE Industrial Systems (founded in 1930) to form GE Consumer & Industrial. From 2010 to late 2014, GE Appliances & Lighting was a sub-business under GE Home & Business Solutions.
Failed sale to Electrolux
On September 8, 2014, after a 6-year sale process that included negotiations with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, General Electric agreed to sell the company to Electrolux, a Swedish appliance manufacturer and the second-largest consumer appliance manufacturer after Whirlpool Corporation, for US$3.3 billion in cash. The deal carried a US$175 million termination fee clause if Electrolux was unable to complete the acquisition. The transaction was terminated in December 2015 after the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block the deal on concerns that, along with Whirlpool, the combined company would control 90% of the market for kitchen appliances sold to home construction companies.
Sale to Haier
On June 6, 2016, Haier acquired the company for $5.6 billion. Under the terms of the sale, Haier has the right to use the GE brand name until 2056.
GE Appliance Park
In 1951, construction began in Louisville, Kentucky on Appliance Park, the 1,000-acre (400 ha) manufacturing facility that currently employs 12,000 people. In 2017, the company invested $30 million to construct a new washer and dryer manufacturing line. In 2017, the company moved the Supplier Distribution Center operated by Derby Supply Chain Solutions to AP2. In 2011, a data center with platinum certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design was opened. Building 6, which housed engineering teams was destroyed by a 8-alarm fire on the morning of April 3, 2015. In 2007, the 9,000 sq ft (840 m2) Monogram Experience Center opened to provide architects, designers, contractors and other home-industry professionals the opportunity to interact with appliances from the Monogram Collection.
2015 fire
A "mammoth" fire occurred on the morning of April 3, 2015 at the Appliance Park. Building 6 (AP6) partially collapsed and was predicted to be a total loss. The 6-acre (24,000 m2) building, located at 4000 Buechel Bank Road, was mostly being used for storage, with portions leased to GE suppliers and logistics partners. More than 200 firefighters from 18 local agencies were involved in fighting the eight-alarm fire, which led to a production halt and evacuation of the other buildings in the complex. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but "shelter in place" orders were issued for homes and businesses within a 2-mile (3.2 km) radius (later reduced to a one-half mile radius) of the Appliance Park due to noxious and acrid smoke. No hazardous materials were known to be stored at the site. Because of the huge volume of smoke, gases and runoff from burning plastics and other materials the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection and USEPA were called in to monitor emissions from the fire and found they were not toxic. However, area residents reported leaf-size pieces of ash and burned insulation materials in their yards. The cause of the fire remained unclear; a local fire chief said that investigators were leaning toward a lightning strike as the probable cause.
The fire was contained, but not extinguished, by the early afternoon of April 3. A statement issued by GE later that day indicated that production at the complex would remain halted over the weekend and at least through the end of the following week as the company conducted "a thorough evaluation of all other buildings" and replenished inventories of parts destroyed by the fire. The shelter-in-place order was canceled for residents within one-half mile of the site the following Sunday, April 5.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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