Electrolux, the world's leading electric appliance maker, posted stronger than expected third-quarter results today and stuck to its 2008 growth forecast despite the dark financial climate.
For the months from July to September, the company reported a net profit of 847 million kronor (€84.7m), up 11.2% year-on-year.
Electrolux's sales remained virtually unchanged at 26.34 billion kronor compared to 26.27 billion a year earlier, according to its earnings report.
The company, in the process of restructuring its business to reduce production costs, thus easily beat analyst expectations that its sales in the third quarter would amount to 25.91 billion kronor. At the same time, the company's operating profit for the quarter jumped 11.6% to 1.28 billion kronor.
Despite the good news, company chief executive Hans Straaberg said Electrolux was still feeling the effects of the global financial crisis.
'The financial crisis has without a doubt affected the consumption levels of appliances. Many consumers are postponing their purchases or choosing less expensive products,' he said in a separate statement today.
'And there's no evidence that the weak market developments will turn around in the near future,' he added.
In the second quarter the group revised sharply downward its growth forecast for 2008, blaming the financial turmoil, but today it said it would not revise down the figure further. It expects to rake in an operating profit of between 3.3 and 3.9 billion kronor this year, far below the 4.47 billion it made in 2007.
