HEAR HERE: Electrolux to phase out refrigeration production at Anderson plant by July 2026 as laundry JV ramps up

Electrolux Group said on April 23 that it will phase out Food Preservation production at its Anderson, South Carolina plant by July 2026 as part of a new long-term manufacturing joint venture with China’s Midea Group — a move that reshapes one of the Upstate’s largest industrial employers and affects roughly 1,500 workers in 2026, with a longer-term path back to an estimated 1,200 manufacturing jobs by 2028 in a re-tooled Fabric Care (laundry) factory.

The Anderson facility, which currently produces refrigerators and standalone freezers, is the single largest piece of the Electrolux–Midea partnership in North America. Under the agreements announced Thursday, the plant will be repurposed from a Food Preservation factory into a Fabric Care factory, with current refrigeration production expected to stop by July 2026 and new laundry production expected to commence in the first half of 2027. The manufacturing JV — owned 55 percent by Electrolux Group and 45 percent by Midea — will own and operate the Anderson factory on an initial 15-year term that automatically extends in consecutive 10-year periods unless either party terminates three years in advance.

The workforce math is the part Upstate South Carolina will feel most directly. Electrolux said the partnership is expected to affect approximately 1,500 employees in 2026, with severance costs driving a negative non-recurring item of roughly SEK 0.9 billion in the second quarter. The new JV is then expected to hire up to approximately 1,200 employees gradually across 2027 and 2028 as the laundry production line is built and ramped. Put plainly: 2026 is a layoff year at the Anderson plant; 2027 and 2028 are a rehire-and-retool window, but not one-for-one, and not immediate.

The financial footprint is substantial on the Electrolux side. The company said it expects a write-off of approximately SEK 1.5 billion tied mainly to the Food Preservation production in Anderson, which will be reported as a negative NRI in the second quarter of 2026. Total negative NRIs in the second quarter are expected to reach roughly SEK 2.4 billion. Going the other way, the partnership is expected to require approximately SEK 1.1 billion in capital expenditure over the next three years related specifically to the start-up of Fabric Care production in Anderson.

Electrolux Group President and CEO Yannick Fierling, in the company’s announcement, framed the partnership as a major milestone in the company’s strategy that puts the group in a position to accelerate profitable growth and to continue investing in sustainable, consumer-centric innovations for North American customers.

For Upstate SC, the immediate picture is a major employer in Anderson County — roughly an hour from downtown Spartanburg and in the same regional commuter shed as Spartanburg County manufacturing workers — beginning a multi-quarter wind-down of one product line while a replacement line is still more than a year from opening. South Carolina’s commerce and workforce agencies typically step in with rapid-response services in exactly this kind of phased transition; Upstate readers with family or commuters tied to the Anderson plant can expect WorkKeys and SC Works notifications as the July 2026 phase-out date approaches.

Sources: Electrolux Group and Midea Group joint press release, April 23, 2026 (Electrolux investor relations), and Spartanburg County labor-market context from SC Department of Commerce public records.