GE Appliances, which has launched more than 2,800 new products in the past four years, is unveiling a number of new products this week at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Orlando, Florida.
From the Roper Corp. plant in LaFayette, Georgia - which is adding more than 600 jobs as part of one of the biggest factory expansions in Northwest Georgia - GE Appliances unveiled its new GE Profile™ 30-inch Smart Built-In Convection Single Wall Oven with Side-Swing Doors.
The new oven, which has a suggested retail price of $3,554, features an innovative door design that opens to the side, eliminating awkward reaching over a hot surface. The oven's soft-close door shuts on its own and features a flexible left or right-hand open to accommodate the design needs of the kitchen. The new oven will automatically track progress and make time and temperature adjustments and over-the-air upgrades through GE Profile Connect and is also outfitted with a seven-inch touchscreen. And built-in Wi-Fi allows owners to easily control their oven from anywhere with just a smartphone or tablet.
Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances, said such product innovation reflects the changes in the appliance maker's culture in the past five years since GE Appliances was bought by the Chinese appliance and electronics giant Haier. Over the past four years, the company invested more than $2 billion in the U.S. - more than any other appliance company in America - including a new logistics center in Georgia that opened in March 2020 and a new $118 million investment announced in October at the Roper Corp. plant.
"We're really a business that is built up with entrepreneurial sub-businesses that are there to win the market and serve the customer better than ever before," Nolan said during a news conference from the Orlando show. "We have nimble entrepreneurial organizations serving the customer. Especially post-COVID, people want to work in an entrepreneurial, fast-moving, exciting place that moves at the speed of the market."
Roper will be advertising on the NBC affiliate in Chattanooga, WRCB-TV, during Sunday's Super Bowl to help recruit more workers for its growing factory.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner