Will the ongoing trade war between the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China have a negative financial impact on Benton Harbor-based, home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation? According to company leaders, it will not.
That’s because tariffs only directly impact products that cross geopolitical boundaries and goods produced in the U.S. and sold in the U.S. should be unaffected.
Speaking this week at the Raymond James 46th Annual Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando, Florida, Whirlpool Corporation Senior Vice President and Controller Roxanne Warner said 80 percent of what Whirlpool Corporation sells in the United States is produced domestically. She said the production for the remaining 20 percent is roughly split between China and Mexico.
North America is Whirlpool Corporation’s largest market for major home appliances, making up 62 percent of sales in 2024. By comparison, Latin America is the second largest market, making up 21 percent of sales, while other regions represent sales in the single digits.
As far as raw materials sourced from outside the United States, Warner said because the company has a practice of locking in contracts for raw materials for a minimum of one year, she said financial exposure, for now, is minimal.
“This is not the first time that Whirlpool Corporation is operating in an environment that we have to face tariffs. And as you look back, even five to 10 years of our history pre-COVID, you would see that we’ve always been able to manage through that tariff environment, either through the contracts that we already have or through assessing the business and understanding what we need to do from a cost-based pricing standpoint.”
Warner added that earnings guidance, as of right now, does not factor in tariff exposure.
“We will assess… to understand whether or not we do need to take cost-based pricing, or whether or not the contracts that we do have locked in have us protected enough. I think that’s something that we will decide at the time.”
Whirlpool Corporation’s 2025 guidance anticipates $15.8 billion in net sales, 6.8 percent in ongoing EBIT margin, and between $500 million and $600 million in free cash flow. The $15.8 billion reflects an absolute decrease in net sales, year over year, but company officials point out it is an increase in relative terms.
Appearing at the investor’s conference, Warner summarized why Whirlpool is an attractive investment in three points: A very different portfolio of business with a focus on regional and local scale in high margin areas; organic value creation from the Americas and global small appliance businesses for when an eventual housing recovery happens; and clear capital allocation priorities with emphasis on improving their net debt leverage and delivering robust dividend funding.
—
This story has been updated to reflect the speaker’s intended statement regarding production split between the U.S., China, and Mexico. A previous version of this story indicated Canada as part of the mix.
