Appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation has announced third quarter net sales growth of 3.7% on 2020 to $5,488million, driven by cost-based pricing and “strong” consumer demand.

Chairman and chief executive officer Marc Bitzer

It follows growth of 31.7% to $5,324million in Q2, which Whirlpool reported as a “volatile environment.”

The parent company of Whirlpool, Hotpoint, Indesit and KitchenAid brands, posted ongoing EBIT of $608million in Q3 2021, down 3.2% from $6.28million in 2020.

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However, cash generated by operating activities was recorded at $1,294million up $887million on 2020, with adjusted cash flow of $1,296million.

The cash generated figure was impacted by the divesture of Whirlpool China and Turkey subsidiary.

Chief financial officer Jim Peters commented: “We continue to strengthen our balance sheet with exceptional cash generation.

“We are on track to deliver yet another record ongoing earnings per share and expect to return over $1.2billion to shareholders in 2021.”

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA) net sales were stable at $1,256million from $1,258million in Q3 2020, while EBIT was down 35.4% from $43million to $28million.

President Whirlpool EMEA and executive vice president of Whirlpool Corporation Gilles Morel commented: “We are pleased to have delivered profitable results in an inflationary period, and increased Q3 net sales by 15% compared to 2019.

“Our continuing innovation in our products are our operations gives us confidence in the resilience of our business and our long term success.”

The Whirlpool Corporation expects full year sales growth of 13% in 2021, with cash provided by operating activities of $1.95billion and adjusted free cash flow of $1.7billion to remain unchanged.

Chairman and chief executive officer Marc Bitzer said: “We have and will continue to deliver strong performance in a challenging environment.”

In 2020, Whirlpool Corporation reported approximately $19billion in annual sales, employed 78,000 people and had 57 manufacturing and technology research centres.