Electrolux UK axes corporate PR

Electrolux UK, the Swedish electrical goods manufacturer, has axed

its corporate PR department as part of a worldwide programme of

cuts.

UK group head of corporate communications Isobel Norwell has left the

company, along with the other member of the corporate team, PR assistant

Gillian Corish. Norwell is to launch a PR and media relations training

company, The Training Company.

Corporate PR will now be handled from Sweden by senior vice-president

for communications and public affairs, Lars Goran Johansson, who

oversees a team of 10. Consumer PR will be the responsibility of

Electrolux’s three UK divisions: household appliances; professional

appliances, which makes equipment for food services and laundries; and

outdoor products, which makes garden equipment.

Group PR manager Tina Withington oversees communications for the

household appliance division, which markets brands including Zanussi,

AEG, and Electrolux. She joined Electrolux from rival Bosch last summer,

as the division’s first group public relations manager.

She said divisions would take responsibility for their own PR as part of

the global restructuring announced by Electrolux last year - it will

closed 25 factories worldwide, cutting thousands of jobs.

The UK corporate PR division did not retain any agencies, but worked on

an ad-hoc basis with Jackson Communications and Corporate

Communications.