Canada’s home appliance suppliers have a new industry association and its former one is shutting down.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers of Washington, D.C., has set up a Canadian division in Ottawa, Ontario, prompting the Canadian Appliance Manufacturers Association to close its doors in Toronto.
AHAM, the dominant association representing U.S. suppliers of appliances such as refrigerators and laundry washers and dryers, announced July 13 that Steve Caldow, senior product manager with vacuum cleaner major Miele Ltd. of Vaughan, Ontario, has been named chairman of AHAM’s Canada Council. AHAM also reported Bruce Rebel has been appointed director of technical services for AHAM Canada. Rebel had been associate director of regulatory affairs at telecommunications giant Bell Canada.
“With Steve Caldow leading the AHAM Canada Council and Bruce Lebel leading our technical efforts, AHAM Canada is off to a great start in representing the appliance manufacturing sector in Canada,” stated AHAM President Joe McGuire in a news release.” AHAM looks forward to representing the appliance industry in Canada and the U.S. on issues unique to each country and on important cross border issues as well.”
Members of the Canada Council include appliance majors BSH Home Appliances Ltd., Electrolux Canada, Haier America, LG Electronics Canada Inc., Samsung Electronics Canada, Viking Range Corp and Whirlpool Canada LP.
AHAM already has a history of working with Canadian appliance technical experts. It its recently developed sustainability standard for refrigerators, the Canadian Standards Association helped the AHAM task force and Underwriters Laboratories Inc. evaluate and rate relevant technologies.
The Canadian Appliance Manufacturers Association was a council of Electro-Federation Canada of Toronto.
“[CAMA’s closure] is a direct result of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) opening a Canadian branch office targeted for July 1, 2012,” CAMA stated on its Website. “Due to AHAM’s expansion into Canada, this has resulted in many CAMA members resigning from EFC despite a long-standing relationship.”
CAMA has provided services to its members in the Canadian market for decades and has been part of EFC since 1995. It will serve its remaining members until the end of the year through its Consumer Electronics Marketers of Canada Council and may extend such services beyond yearend.
“EFC will continue to be a strong association in the Canadian marketplace focusing on the electrical, electronics and telecommunications sectors,” noted EFC President and CEO Jim Taggart in a statement on the website.