This year, we are celebrating 100 years since our launch in Australia and New Zealand!
In 1924, our founder Axel Wenner-Gren set his sights on the distant but affluent markets of Australia and New Zealand for international expansion, launching the Electrolux brand in these countries, alongside North America and Italy in the same year.
Soon, local sales offices were established and vacuum cleaner sales were boosted by successful door-to-door visits and clever marketing campaigns.
Wenner-Gren's great strength was his imaginative and unconventional approach to sales and marketing. Pictured above are Electrolux motorcycles and cars lined up on the waterfront in Melbourne, Australia, probably at the end of the 1920s. The vehicles were used by salespeople in many countries and garnered a lot of attention.
Fast-forward to 2000. Electrolux in Australia and New Zealand turned into a true success story as it went from being a pure vacuum cleaner brand to a premium home appliance brand, thanks to the acquisition of Email, which had dominated the major appliance market in the region.
Today, Electrolux Group is a market leader, especially in the cooking appliance space, and we are the only home appliance company that still manufactures in Australia, with our very first factory launched in Melbourne back in 1934.
