[eru]

> [...] they shared the fate of all European household appliance manufacturers — increasing competition from Asian companies, so by the 1990s, Braun was dead.

Miele and Bosch etc are still going strong. So I'm not sure what you mean by 'European household appliance manufacturers': they have faced the competition from Asian companies and survived.

[DeathArrow]

> Miele and Bosch etc are still going strong

Bosch AC units are just the brand slapped on products designed and manufactured in Asia by the likes of Gree, TCL and Midea. Probably their washing machines, too.

[Reason077]

> "Miele and Bosch etc are still going strong."

Not to mention Phillips, Electrolux (still the world's 2nd largest appliance manufacturer after Whirlpool!), and relative newcomers like Dyson.

[unwind]

You seem knowledgeable about these companies, but can I just please point out that the Dutch company is "PHILIPS" [1] with a single 'L'. I wrote it in all-caps to make it more clear, but see the logo on the linked Wikipedia page of course. Thanks.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips

[Reason077]

You're quite right, sorry. My uncle worked for Philips back when I was growing up and due to his staff discounts, our house was filled with all their products (back when they made TVs, audio equipment, and even computers), so I should know better!

Now days I'm still loyal to their excellent toothbrushes, beard trimmers, and LED smart lighting products.

[nehal3m]

Philips is not exactly a European household appliance manufacturer, they've sold off most of that and moved into health tech.

[Reason077]

> "they've sold off most of that and moved into health tech"

They've kept health tech and "personal care products", which includes the Phillips shavers and toothbrushes. Phillips is a global market leader in those products and sells just about as many shavers as Braun does.

[Rinzler89]

Nah bruh. Philips and Electrolux are mostly just name brands today that license their badges to be placed on goods from OEM Chinese or Turkish appliance makers.

[Reason077]

Electrolux doesn't license out their brand names to anyone, AFAIK. They do operate manufacturing facilities in 16 countries, and 2 of their 3 largest factories are in Europe: Vallenoncello, Italy and Ljungby, Sweden (the third is in Rayong, Thailand - not China!)

With Phillips its more complicated because they've spun off many of their divisions into separate companies, such as the lighting division into Signify NV. So Signify now makes the Phillips Hue lighting products under license. But it's not like they're licensing the brand out to random companies - they're companies that were previously part of Phillips itself.

[fransje26]

> they've sold off most of that and moved into health tech.

..and are knowingly selling, among other things, highly defective CPAP devices.

[langsoul-com]

More accurate would be low margin businesses died off to Asia.

High margin/specialisation businesses are still around. Just because wages don't massively affect the bottom line.