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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Dualit Limited

Dualit is a British manufacturer of kitchen and catering equipment, best known for their range of heavy-duty toaster. The Dualit toaster is regarded as a design classic, thanks in part to its retro styling. It differs from most other toasters in that it is relatively simple in construction, with an electromechanical timer and using a manual lever mechanism to lift the toast from the toasting slots. It is also easily repairable, with replacement elements and other parts available, so it typically has a longer service life than contemporary electronic toasters. Although it was primarily designed for the commercial catering market, its classic appearance has led to its becoming trendy in the domestic market, described by The Observer as a "symbol of the kitchen porn 90s"

Designed by inventor Max Gort-Barten in the early 1950s, the Dualit toaster is notable for its 'large loaf' shape, characterised with cooling slots at both ends of the unit. These are necessary for the periods of extended use, expected of the toaster in the busy environment of the commercial café or canteen. The units are available in different sizes, with various slot numbers and are manufactured in a range of colours. The simple hand-built process used in their manufacture, with each part held together with visible screws, makes the toaster robust, yet easy to disassemble and repair. Another distinguishing feature of these machines is the electromechanical timer which makes a loud whirring noise when in use.

Dualit have manufactured a diverse range of kitchenware products in recent years, including smaller domestic toasters, kettles, mechanical scales and digital radios.

The iconic status of the Dualit toaster has let to it being widely imitated and in some cases these copies have been subject to legal action from Dualit.
Click here for some Dualit products

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Coleman Company

Coleman Company, Inc. is an American company that specializes in outdoor recreation products. Historically, Coleman is known for camping gear.
It was founded by W. C. Coleman, who began selling lamps in 1900 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma and moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1902.
The Coleman Company's headquarters are in Wichita, and it also has facilities in Texas. There are approximately 1500 employees.
Throughout its history, Coleman has produced a wide variety of equipment primarily aimed at the camping and recreational markets. Perhaps their most famous product is the Coleman Lantern, a series of lamps that burn kerosene, naphtha, gasoline, or propane and use one or two mantles to produce an intense white light. Coleman also manufactures camp stoves, sleeping bags, coolers, hot tubs, generators, watches, tents, and backpacks among other things. They also make a line of small boats, including canoes, pontoon boats, johnboats and the unique scanoe. In the past they also sold pop-up travel trailers, Skiroule snowmobiles and the Hobie Cat brand of sailboats.
A separate business unit sells home heating and air conditioning units.
Click here for some Coleman products.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Braun

Braun GmbH (German pronunciation "brown", commonly pronounced "brawn" in English) is a German consumer products company in Kronberg im Taunus. There is also a factory situated in Carlow, Ireland.

From 1984 through 2005, Braun was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Gillette Company, which had purchased a controlling interest in the company in 1967. Braun is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, which acquired Gillette in 2005.

Formerly a manufacturer of radios, slide projectors, Super 8 film cameras and accessories, and high-fidelity sound systems.

Braun no longer provides replacement parts for their Multipractic Food processor, one of their most popular items. Braun's clocks are increasingly difficult to find in the marketplace.

Click here for some Braun products.

Whirlpool Corporation

Whirlpool Corporation is a Fortune 500 company and a global manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $20 billion, more than 70,000 employees, and more than 70 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world. The company markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Gladiator Garage Works, Inglis, Estate, Brastemp, Bauknecht, Consul, and other major brand names to consumers in nearly every country around the world.

After acquiring the Maytag Corporation on March 31, 2006, Whirlpool Corporation became "the largest home appliance maker in the world", prior to which Electrolux was the largest home appliance maker in the world.

Whirlpool's global and North American headquarters are in Benton Harbor, Michigan. In the U.S., Whirlpool has manufacturing facilities in Fort Smith, Arkansas; Evansville, Indiana; Iowa (Newton and Amana); Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ohio (Clyde, Findlay, Greenville and Marion); and Cleveland, Tennessee.

Whirlpool Corporation has seven employee run diversity networks that are involved with business, employee, and community projects to address the needs of the groups they represent. These diversity networks are The Women's Network (TWN), the Native American Network (NAN), the Whirlpool African American Network (WAAN), The Pride Network (PRIDE), the Whirlpool Asian Community (WAC), the Whirlpool Hispanic Network (WHN), and the Young Professionals Network (YP).

Whirlpool received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equal rights organization Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.

Click here for Whirpool product.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Salton-Westinghouse

Salton, Inc. is a United States company based in Florida that manufactures home appliances, notably the George Foreman series (since 1994) of contact grills and related devices. Salton also manufactures the Juiceman and Breadman series of home appliances and owns the divisions Maxim and Toastmaster.
Its headquarters are in Miramar, Florida. The company was founded in 1947 by Lou Salton, a Jewish immigrant from Poland.
In 2001, General Time Corporation, parent company of Westclox, a clock manufacturer, went bankrupt, and sold the Westclox trademarks to Salton.
Salton was licensed to make small appliances such as vacuum cleaners under the Westinghouse name, from 2002 to 2008.
On 6 August 2007, Salton was suspended from the NYSE. It was subsequently listed on the OTC Bulletin Board, changing its symbol from SFP to SFPI.
In October 2007, Salton sold its entire time products business, including the Westclox and Ingraham trademarks, to NYL Holdings LLC
Click here for some Salton products.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Tupperware

Tupperware is the name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which were first introduced to the public in 1946.
Tupperware develops, manufactures, and internationally distributes its products by its parent company Tupperware Brands Corporation and it is marketed by means of direct sales through an independent sales force of approximately 1.9 million consultants. Tupperware is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tupperware Brands Corporation.

Tupperware was developed in 1946 by Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983) in the U.S.A. He developed plastic containers used in households to contain food and keep it airtight. The formerly patented "burping seal" is a famous aspect of Tupperware, which distinguished it from competitors.

Tupperware pioneered the direct marketing strategy made famous by the Tupperware party. Brownie Wise (1913-1992), a former sales representative of Stanley Home Products, developed the strategy. During the early 1950s, Tupperware's sales and popularity exploded, thanks in large part to Wise's influence among women who sold Tupperware, and some of the famous "jubilees" celebrating the success of Tupperware ladies at lavish and outlandishly themed parties. Tupperware was known—at a time when women came back from working during World War II only to be told to "go back to the kitchen" -- as a method of empowering women, and giving them a toehold in the post-war business world. The tradition of Tupperware's "Jubilee" style events continues to this day, with rallies being held in major cities to recognize and reward top-selling and top-recruiting individuals, teams, and organizations.

In 1958, Earl Tupper fired Brownie Wise over general difference of opinion in the Tupperware business operation. It is believed that Tupper objected to the expenses incurred by the jubilee and other similar celebrations of Tupperware.

Tupperware spread to Europe in 1960 when Mila Pond hosted a Tupperware party in Weybridge, England, and subsequently around the world. In 2003, Tupperware closed down operations in the UK, citing customer dissatisfaction with their direct sales model as an issue , and relaunched after a restructuring in 2005.

Rexall bought Tupperware in 1958. Rexall sold its namesake drugstores in 1977, and renamed itself Dart Industries. Dart merged with Kraftco to form Dart & Kraft. The company demerged, with the former Dart assets named Premark International. Tupperware Brands was spun off from Premark in 1996; Premark was acquired by Illinois Tool Works three years later.

Click here for some Tupperware products.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Sanyo

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500, whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 324 offices and plants worldwide, together employing more than 11,000 employees. On November 2, 2008, Sanyo and Panasonic announced that they have agreed on the main points of a proposed buyout that would make Sanyo a subsidiary of Panasonic and a formal announcement of the acquisition was made on Sanyo's web site on December 19, 2008.[3]They became a subsidiary of Panasonic on December 21, 2009.

Sanyo utilizes an extensive socialization process for new employees, so that they will be acclimatized to Sanyo's corporate culture. New employees take a five-month course during which they eat together and share company-provided sleeping accommodation. They learn everything from basic job requirements to company expectations for personal grooming and the appropriate way in which to address their coworkers and superiors.
Click here for some Sanyo products.