The death of Lino Zanussi and his closest assistants in an airplane crash in Spain on 18 June 1968 marked a change of strategy. In the meantime the economic situation in Italy had changed and with plans for diversification undermined by the difficulties being experienced by Italian industry in general, Zanussi slipped towards financial crisis in the late ‘70s and the first half of the 1980s. The recovery process began in 1985 after Electrolux acquired the company in late 1984.
In 1985, Zanussi introduced the Jetsystem on their range of washing machines, which uses a regurgitation pump to pump the water in the drum onto the clothes via a jet hole in the door seal. This helps save water as the clothes are soaked with soapy water quicker. This can still be found on current Zanussi washing machines.
Zanussi manufacture products in Italy, Thailand and China.