Electrolux, Tell Me When That Chicken Is Done

(Bloomberg) -- Electrolux thinks people are ready to talk with their kitchens.

The 100-year-old maker of home appliances is pouring investments into connected ovens and refrigerators that can be controlled with one’s voice or an app. Instead of turning knobs and pressing buttons, these appliances can use a voice-assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Home to turn on and off and adjust temperatures.

The technology is still in its infancy and pales in comparison with similar advances made for example in the auto industry, where self-driving cars are close to becoming a reality.

But the head of strategy and innovation at Electrolux, David Cronstrom, thinks the market for voice-controlled and connected devices will grow exponentially in the coming years. By 2025 he expects “a very large share” of the company’s sales to come from these types of appliances, up from a fairly modest ratio today. Last year, the company spent part of its 300 million-krona ($32 million) increase in R&D investments on this segment.

“I think in a few years from now, people will take it for granted that these products are connected,” Cronstrom said in an interview on the sidelines of the company’s Future Kitchen event in Stockholm. “If my children walk up to a product that isn’t connected, they think its broken.”

Electrolux hopes the technology will give it an edge in anticipating customers’ future needs, as the system can tell when a stove or fan is about to break down and propose a fix. It could also be a boon for selling more products and services such as spare parts and system upgrades.

“Before, when we sold a refrigerator, we wouldn’t hear from the customer again,” Cronstrom said. “Now we have the opportunity to have a relationship after the first sale.”

The aim is to raise the level of interaction between the customers and their homes further, allowing for example kitchen appliances to be connected to phone cameras, recipe apps and how-to-cook tutorials.

Electrolux currently offers several connected devices, including the CombiSteam Pro Smart oven, which retails for about $3,000, and the Anova Precision Cooker, which sells for around $120.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Molin in Stockholm at amolin3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katerina Petroff at kpetroff@bloomberg.net, Christian Wienberg, Nick Rigillo

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.