HOOVER, the once ubiquitous icon of postwar domesticity, is being put up for sale by its American parent company as sales of the pioneering vacuum cleaner have dropped to unsupportable levels in the face of stiff competition from Britain’s Dyson.

There was a time when more than half of American households used a Hoover-branded vacuum cleaner. Today, that number is dwindling rapidly. Sales of the Hoover, which was invented in 1907 by Murray Spangler, a janitor from Ohio, have been all but destroyed in the United States by the British-designed Dyson.

Only a year ago Dyson claimed its first victory over the Hoover on its home turf. In the final quarter of 2004 Dyson overtook Hoover in sales by value, while the American company still managed to outsell the expensive British rival by number of units.

When Dyson entered the US market in 2002, the American manufacturer had a tight grip on its home turf with a 36 per cent share. Yet the Dyson, with its modernist looks and unique engineering, has eroded Hoover’s commanding position in America every year since.

In 2004 Hoover’s share had slipped to about 20 per cent in the US, while Dyson managed to capture almost 14 per cent of the market. In the past 12 months their positions have reversed, with Hoover’s share slipping to almost 13 per cent and Dyson’s sales going beyond the important 20 per cent mark. Maytag, Hoover’s owner in the United States and the rest of the world outside Europe, admitted yesterday that sales had plunged so far on its home ground that it had been forced to “explore strategic alternatives” for the brand, which more than likely will lead to a sale.

“We have many challenges before us,” Ralph Hake, chief executive of Maytag, told analysts yesterday. “We can no longer carry the burden of this underperforming product line, so we’re now exploring other strategic options, including the sale of our floorcare business.”

Maytag is on the verge of completing a merger with Whirlpool, its more successful rival. It is hoped that the $1.7 billion (£965 million) deal will offer a lifeline to Maytag, once one of the biggest manufacturers of household appliances in America and a big employer in the MidWest. The deal has been approved by shareholders and is expected to be completed before the end of next month, but it has not yet received regulatory clearance.

The Iowa-based company also revealed that it made a loss of $75 million, or 93 cents a share, in the forth quarter of last year, compared with a $14 million loss, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier.

Mr Hake said, however, that Maytag would continue with its marketing plans for the Hoover Z, a vacuum cleaner designed to appeal to Dyson customers.

Much of Dyson’s success in the United States came after the bagless vacuum cleaner had made appearances in the background on hit shows such as Friends and Will and Grace. Martin McCourt, the Dyson chief executive, said: “Without R&D and relentless innovation, we wouldn’t be able to take on huge markets like the US or stay ahead of competitors. It’s our technology that Americans clearly understand and appreciate.”

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