Transition at Whirpool-Tatramat: From joint Venture to Acquisition

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Back in the 1980s mention washing machines to somebody living in the United States and you were more likely to think of Whirlpool than any other brand name. If you lived in Central Eastern Europe and you were asked the same question you would have been more likely to think of Tatramat than any other name brand. Now twenty years later when asking the same question in the same places you would get only one answer: Whirlpool. That is because in 1992 Whirlpool did what it does best. It expanded by going into a joint venture with Tatramat which ultimately turned into a 100% Whirlpool controlled corporation. Whirlpool’s expansion into Europe started in 1989 with a joint venture with NV Philips of the Netherlands. By 1991 they had taken control of the joint venture and controlled 100% of the venture. This was the template they used for the joint venture with Tatramat. Whirlpool was looking into capitalizing on the low cost competition in Central Eastern Europe and Tatramat looked like the perfect venue. Tatramat began in 1845 producing nails and curry combs for horses and cattle. Expansions led to the production of domestic kitchen goods, water heaters, electric ovens and automatic washing machines. By the 1980s Tatramat has 88% of Czechoslovakia’s automatic washing machine market. However, in 1988 Czechoslovakia started to gradually reduce the export subsidies that covered the difference between the high domestic cost and the low foreign costs. The Comecon market collapse in 1989 almost caused Tatramat to close. By 1990 Tatramat, who had become a nationalized company in 1945, was privatized by the government and became a state joint stock company, where the state owned the assets of the company but the company could establish joint ventures with pre-approved foreign investors. All these things, combined with factory problems (high fixed costs and low

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