2023.02.22
Record years during the pandemic return to normal
In our special edition of APPLiAnytt, we were able to read about how the market development in 2022 has unfolded compared to the record years during the pandemic. During the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, our market turnover increased by an incredibly strong 20 percent compared to the nearest ”normal” year without a pandemic, that is, 2019. This despite extensive problems with component shortages and logistics, which at times led to delivery problems for both white goods and household appliances.
The expansive pandemic effect during these years was achieved by a high degree of kitchen renovations being initiated during the pandemic. In addition, the pace of new housing production was high in these years in Sweden. The fact that many Swedes also worked from home and cooked at home instead of visiting restaurants meant that sales of coffee machines, kitchen assistants, mixers, air fryers and several product categories reached record levels.
Of course, the industry had expected a decline after the two extreme record years during the pandemic. This is especially logical given the overall economic development in 2022. Below we present how the past year 2022 compares to this most comparable pandemic-free year – 2019.
Industry better than 2019
Industry development in the Swedish market for household appliances is back to pre-pandemic levels and compared to 2019, 2022 shows an increase of 3 percent for white goods (MDA) and household appliances (SDA) combined.
If we consider the economic conditions that have changed significantly during the year with rising interest rates, falling housing prices, high inflation, war in Europe and other uncertainty about prices and the economy, it is surprisingly strong that industry turnover for 2022 has grown compared to the situation before the pandemic.
MDA increased by just over 4 percent compared to 2019
MDA shows a higher value increase than smaller household appliances, reaching a growth of over 4 percent. Among the different segments, only washing and drying does not fully reach 2019. All other product segments show positive growth figures.
Among the product categories, built-in products within 'cooling', 'cookers' and 'hoods' have increased disproportionately compared to 2019, mostly driven by the increased number of new, completed homes equipped in 2022 and the final phase of the high rate of kitchen renovation.
SDA equal to 2019
For household appliances, which largely drove record sales for the industry during the pandemic years, we are now back to the level that 2019 represented. With sales over the year that are similar to 2019 on a monthly basis – almost identical – the year 2022 landed in value terms at – 0.4 percent in comparison. The level for coffee machines is still much higher than the comparison year – see table above – while ”ironing” has decreased significantly. This decrease is largely due to the fact that 2019 was a record year for sales of steamers, which have not been sold to the same extent in subsequent years.
The full APPLiA report 2022
As a reader of APPLiAnytt, you can now download APPLiA's entire report for market development 2022 in pdf format (English) by clicking here.
