• June 8, 2007

Whirlpool Corporation, Benton Harbor, Mich.-based maker of appliances, including the Newton, Iowa-based Maytag brands, is shifting manufacture of cooking appliances and reducing capacity for air control appliances this year.

In a release, the company says it is negotiating a licensing agreement with potential global partners to manufacture, market and distribute air control products that will carry the Whirlpool brand name.

Meanwhile, the company will eliminate U.S. production of air control appliances, eliminating about 330 jobs at its LaVergne, Tenn., manufacturing facility after this year, as it shutters production of humidifiers and other air appliances there.

The company is also cutting 400 jobs in manufacturing of cooking appliances as it shifts manufacture of free-standing ranges from Cleveland, Tenn., to Tulsa, Okla., and Celaya, Mexico. The company says it has not yet determined the number of positions being created at Tulsa and Celaya. Products from the North American facilities are sold to consumers in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and in markets around the world.

The company, with annual sales of approximately $18 billion, says it has 73,000 employees, and more than 70 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world.--Karl Greenberg