The question of who makes asko appliances has a longer answer than most brand histories, because Asko has changed ownership more than once while keeping its Swedish design identity intact. Understanding that history explains a lot about how the brand talks about itself today.
The Swedish beginning
Asko was founded in 1950 in Sweden by Karl-Erik Andersson. The company built its first automatic front-load washing machine and a compact dishwasher in 1965, and began exporting outside Sweden by 1967. That early focus on front-load laundry and compact dishwashing is still visible in the current lineup — Asko never chased top-load washers or oversized dishwasher tubs, and the product philosophy has stayed close to its Scandinavian starting point for seven decades.
From Sweden to Slovenia
In July 2010, the Slovenian appliance manufacturer Gorenje Group acquired Asko Appliances AB. Gorenje began moving Asko manufacturing from Sweden to Slovenia starting in 2013, consolidating production into its Velenje plant network. This is the answer most people are actually asking for when they wonder who makes asko appliances today: the appliances are built by Gorenje in Slovenia, even though the brand identity, engineering direction, and design work remain rooted in Sweden.
Hisense ownership since 2018
In June 2018, the Chinese appliance manufacturer Hisense acquired a 95% majority stake in Gorenje Group. Since that acquisition, Asko Appliances AB has operated as a brand of Gorenje Group, which is itself a subsidiary of Hisense. Product management, research and development, and design remain headquartered in Lidkoping, Sweden, while manufacturing continues through Gorenje’s Slovenian plants. Asko’s own brand language sums this up as “more steel, less plastic” — a durability-focused message the company has carried consistently through each ownership change.
What this ownership structure does not change
Hisense ownership has not converted Asko into a house-brand relabeling operation the way some appliance names on the market work. Asko still designs and engineers its own products out of Sweden, with its own model numbering, its own Art. No. parts system, and its own control-board history — none of which was inherited wholesale from Hisense or Gorenje’s other brands. That is part of why Asko error codes and parts logic do not resemble any other manufacturer’s system; the engineering lineage is genuinely Asko’s own.
Why the ownership history matters for repair
Knowing the Sweden-to-Slovenia-to-Hisense chain helps set expectations around parts sourcing and documentation, especially for older units built before the 2013 manufacturing shift or before the 2018 Hisense acquisition. If your Asko appliance is old enough to predate one of these transitions, parts lead times can run longer, and our technicians often cross-reference the Art. No. against multiple production eras to find a correct match. You can browse our model pages for details on specific units, or book a diagnostic visit if you are not sure which era your appliance falls into.
Where to verify who makes asko appliances today
If you want to verify any part of this ownership history yourself, Asko’s official US site is the right starting point, since it reflects the current corporate structure and product direction rather than an outdated snapshot from before the Hisense acquisition. Understanding who makes asko appliances also helps explain the brand’s continued Scandinavian design language even under Chinese ownership — design and engineering decisions still run through the Lidkoping, Sweden team, while Gorenje’s Slovenian plants handle physical production at scale. This split between design origin and manufacturing location is common across the appliance industry, not unique to Asko, but it is worth knowing because it shapes how the company talks about itself and what claims are and are not accurate to repeat. A brand’s design heritage and its manufacturing footprint are not always the same country, and Asko is a clear example of that distinction holding true even through multiple changes in corporate ownership.
What the who makes asko appliances question means for parts today
The practical upshot of this ownership chain is that parts and service documentation for Asko appliances still run through channels tied to Sweden and Slovenia rather than through a generic Hisense parts system, which is part of why the Art. No. and model-numbering conventions described elsewhere on this site have stayed consistent even through the 2018 change in ownership. An owner asking who makes asko appliances is often really asking whether the brand is still the same company it used to be in any meaningful sense, and the honest answer is that the engineering identity has held steady even as the corporate ownership chart has changed twice.
