April 10, 2000, 8:45PM Home Depot soon to offer Maytag products Cox News Service

ATLANTA -- Home Depot will begin selling Maytag brands at warehouse stores next month as it rolls out a major appliance expansion.

he Maytag partnership fills a void left by Whirlpool Corp., which was dropped from Home Depot's appliance launch this year after the manufacturer had problems making deliveries during the first few months of the rollout.

Analysts have expected Home Depot to team with Maytag as it continued the launch with only General Electric. Maytag brands, including its Jenn-Air cooking appliances, will debut at Home Depot stores in Jacksonville, Fla., next month. Home Depot will expand distribution to selected markets several weeks later and expects all of its U.S. stores to carry Maytag appliances by year's end.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/business/517954

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 11, 2000

Answers

Whirlpool was having a lot of difficulties late last year--couldn't provide parts for their dealers, etc. They had a new SAP system put in early last year, and, they say it takes up to five years to shake all the bugs out of a large, new SAP system. Apparently, now, this move is bearing bitter fruit.

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), April 11, 2000.