STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux said on Thursday profit more than doubled in the third quarter as its North America business kept recovering and managed to mostly compensate for higher U.S. trade tariff costs.
The group, whose brands also include Frigidaire and AEG, said operating profit rose to 890 million crowns ($94.5 million) from a year-earlier 349 million on organic sales growth of 5%, mainly driven by double-digit organic sales growth in North America.
Analysts had on average forecast an operating profit of 875 million crowns, according to a poll provided by Electrolux.
Electrolux said its North America business, which has earlier struggled for years in the face of high costs, underperformance at its factories and tough competition, gained market share.
“Despite a pressured pricing environment, in the third quarter we managed to compensate for the majority of U.S. tariff-related cost increases,” CEO Yannick Fierling said in a statement.
The rival to Midea and Whirlpool said demand in the U.S. was largely unchanged, noting however that inflation concerns related to tariffs weighed on consumer confidence in the country.
It said its main brands gained market share despite continued tough price competition in all its regions.
In a separate statement, Electrolux said it had appointed Patrick Minogue as head of its North America division.
($1 = 9.4155 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
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