Whirlpool Corporation
Whirlpool Corporation is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of home appliances headquartered in Benton Charter Township, Michigan, United States.[2] The Fortune 500 company, in 2023 had an annual revenue of approximately $19 billion in sales, around 59,000 employees, and more than 55 manufacturing and technology research centers globally.[3]
Company type
November 11, 1911 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, U.S.
Louis and Emory Upton
Worldwide
US$19.45 billion (2023)
US$916 million (2023)
US$481 million (2023)
US$17.31 billion (2023)
US$2.36 billion (2023)
≈ 59,000 (December 2023)
The company markets its namesake flagship brand Whirlpool alongside other brands including Maytag, KitchenAid, JennAir, Amana, Gladiator GarageWorks, Inglis, Estate, Brastemp, Bauknecht, Ignis, Indesit, Consul, and, in Europe, Hotpoint (in the Americas, the Hotpoint brand is controlled by Haier).[4]
In its domestic U.S. market, Whirlpool has eleven manufacturing facilities which employs about 15,000 workers.[5]
History[edit]
Founding and first customers[edit]
On November 11, 1911, Louis Upton (1886–1952), who worked as an insurance salesman, and his uncle, Emory Upton, who owned a machine shop, founded the Upton Machine Company. Following a failed business venture, Lou acquired a patent to a manual clothes washer. He approached Emory to determine if he could add an electric motor to the design. With the aid of a $5,000 investment from retailing executive Lowell Bassford, they began producing electric motor-driven wringer washers.[6][7] Soon after its founding, Lou's younger brother Fred joined the company.[8]
Their first customer, the Federal Electric division of Commonwealth Edison, ordered 100 machines, but a fault in the gear transmission led the customer to threaten their return.[8] After the machines were recalled and repaired, Federal Electric doubled the order.[9] They remained a customer for three years, then they began producing their own washers. The loss of Federal Electric forced Upton to diversify until, in 1916, they landed Sears, Roebuck & Co. as a customer. Sears began selling two types of Upton wringer washers under the "Allen" brand,[6] one for $54.75 and a deluxe model for $95. Sales grew quickly, and in 1921 Sears appointed Upton as their sole supplier of washers.[6][10] To avoid becoming over-reliant on Sears, Upton began marketing a washer under their own brand name.[6]
The increasing volume of sales led Upton to merge with the Nineteen Hundred Washer Company of Binghamton, New York in 1929, adopting the name Nineteen Hundred Corporation. The company was relatively unaffected by the Great Depression. During WWII, its factories were converted to armament production. In 1947, it introduced an automatic, spinner-type washer sold by Sears under the "Kenmore" brand. A year later it was sold by the company under the "Whirlpool" brand name. Lou retired as president in 1949 and was replaced by Elisha "Bud" Gray II.[6]
In response to the post-war consumer demand for convenience products, the company launched a range of home laundry products including wringer and automatic washers, dryers, and irons.[6] In 1949, The Nineteen Hundred Corporation was renamed as the Whirlpool Corporation. In 1951, the philanthropic Whirlpool Foundation was established.
NASA partnership[edit]
In 1962, the company's research laboratories won a contract from NASA to develop the food and waste management system for Project Gemini.[44] The company later developed freeze-dried ice cream in 1968 under contract to NASA for the Apollo missions.[45] Returning to work with NASA under the Johnson Space Center's Advanced Exploration Systems Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project in 2021, Whirlpool developed a zero-gravity refrigerator in partnership with Purdue University and Air Squared to investigate long term food storage for deep space exploration.[46]