Whirlpool

At Whirlpool, we believe that innovative thinking comes from anyone and anywhere within our company. That's why, in 1999, we launched a worldwide effort to instill innovation as a core competency throughout our organization. Since then, Whirlpool people worldwide have participated in and contributed to innovation-related activities that have resulted in new ideas, products and services that deliver real value to our consumers in ways never before seen in either our company or our industry. Innovation is Whirlpool Corporation's differentiating strategy, one we believe provides us with a significant competitive advantage. Innovation also brings us closer to our consumers and enables us to meet their unmet needs. Lou Upton and his uncle, Emory Upton, found Upton Machine Company in St. Joseph, Michigan, to begin producing electric wringer washers. Upton begins making washers for Sears, Roebuck and Co., which markets them under the Allen trade name. Manufacturing capacity is increased through a merger with the Nineteen Hundred Washer Company of Binghamton, New York, forming Nineteen Hundred Corporation. Company adds automatic dryers to its product line and changes its name to Whirlpool Corporation. Whirlpool gains line of refrigerators via merger with Seeger Refrigerator Company and changes its name to Whirlpool-Seeger Corporation; company acquires air conditioner and cooking range lines of Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which are marketed under the RCA-Whirlpool name until the mid-1960s. In its first move outside the United States, Whirlpool buys a stake in Brasmotor S.A., a major Brazilian appliance maker. Whirlpool takes a 33 percent stake in John Inglis Co. Ltd., entering the Canadian home appliance market. Whirlpool secures the rights to the Roper brand name; it joins with the Dutch company N.V. Philips to establish Whirlpool Europe B.V., a joint venture through which Whirlpool will market a full line of major home appliances in Europe. Whirlpool buys out its European partner, taking full control of Whirlpool Europe. Company launches a global restructuring involving the elimination of 4,700 jobs, the closure of plants and other facilities, and a charge of $350 million. Another major restructuring is launched that includes more than 7,000 job cuts and $373 million in charges over the following two years. From its beginning as a manufacturer of electrically powered clothes washers, Whirlpool Corporation has become the world's leading producer of major household appliances. Its main products include home laundry equipment, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, ovens, ranges, room air conditioners, and mixers and other small household appliances. The company's appliances are sold in more than 170 countries worldwide under such brand names as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Roper, Estate, Bauknecht, Ignis, Laden, Polar, Brastemp, Consul, and Eslabon de Lujo. Whirlpool is a major supplier of appliances to Sears, Roebuck and Co., which accounts for about one-fifth of Whirlpool's net sales; these include Whirlpool-made products marketed under Sears' Kenmore brand, as well as Whirlpool and KitchenAid brand products. The corporation has 47 manufacturing locations, ten of which are in the United States; the remainder are in Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Brazil, China, and India. Two-thirds of sales are generated in North America, 20 percent in Europe, and 11 percent in Latin America. The company that preceded Whirlpool was founded in 1911 by Lou Upton and his uncle, Emory Upton, who lent their family name to the machine shop they opened in St. Joseph, Michigan. Lou Upton, a life insurance salesman, had recently lost his investment in a small appliance dealership that had failed. In an attempt to compensate Upton for his loss, the dealer gave him the patent for a manually operated clothes washer. Emory Upton was able to outfit the machine with an electric motor, and--with a $5,000