The Hoover Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hoover Company is an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. For most of the early-and-mid-1900s, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" brand name became synonymous for vacuum cleaners and vacuuming in the United Kingdom. The Hoover Company in the United States is currently part of the Whirlpool Corporation. Hoover UK (split from Hoover U.S. in 1993) is owned and operated by the Brugherio, Italy-based Candy (company)
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The first Hoover vacuum was invented by a Canton, Ohio department store janitor named James Murray Spangler, who devised a trill vacuum cleaner using a soap box, electric motor, broom handle, and pillow case in 1907. Spangler suffered from asthma attacks, and he suspected the carpet sweeper he was using at work was the cause of his ailment.
Spangler then gave one of the vacuums to a friend, Susan Hoover, who used it at her home. Impressed with the machine, she told her husband about it. Her husband was W.H. "Boss" Hoover, a leather-goods manufacturer in North Canton, then called New Berlin. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler in 1908 and retained Spangler as a partner in the new vacuum cleaner business.
Hoover then placed an ad in the Saturday Evening Post offering customers 10 days free use of his vacuum cleaner to anyone who requested it. Using a network of local retailers to facilitate the offer, Hoover thus developed a national network of retailers for the vacuums. Over time, his company's sales expanded globally, and, in British English, the word "Hoover" became a verb meaning "to vacuum a floor".
Hoover's business flourished, and, a year after Hoover acquired the patent from Spangler, he established a research and development department for his new business. In 1926, Hoover invented the "beater bar", a rotating brush and metal bar mechanism at the bottom of the vacuum to loosen dirt trapped in carpets. Ten years later, in 1936, Hoover got another patent -- this time for a new self-propelling mechanism for vacuum cleaners.
Over the years, Hoover diversified into other product lines, including kitchen appliances, hair dryers, and industrial equipment.
[edit] Ownership transitions
The company was owned by the Hoover family until the 1940s, when it then became a publicly traded company. The company's stock was first traded on August 6, 1943. In 1985, the company was purchased by Chicago Pacific Corporation and, in 1989, Chicago Pacific was purchased by Maytag. After Maytag was acquired by Whirlpool, that firm reached an agreement to sell Hoover to Taiwanese firm Techtronic Industries.[1]
[edit] Free Flights Promotion
In 1992, the British division of Hoover announced the Hoover free flights promotion, the demand for which rose far beyond the company's expectations, resulting in major costs and public relations problems for the British division and Maytag, which eventually led to its sale to the Italian manufacturer Candy. In 1993, Sandy Jack became the first person in the United Kingdom to take Hoover to court over the Hoover free flights promotion. Upon the decision in Hoover v. Sandy Jack at Sheriff Court in Kirkcaldy, Fife, a precedent is set. Hoover Holiday Pressure Group furthered court action against Hoover at St. Helens in Merseyside.
[edit] 2000: Consolidation and Cost Control
In 2004, Maytag announced that it would consolidate its corporate office and back office operations in Newton, Iowa and close almost all of Hoover's overlapping functions. This effectively meant that most all white-collar jobs at Hoover's North Canton location would be eliminated. The company had previously closed another manufacturing facility in Jackson Township, Ohio (q.v. Stark County, Ohio).
Like many manufacturing companies in the U.S., Hoover is facing pressures as consumers demand lower-priced goods. Hoover has operations in Mexico, where operating costs are lower than in the U.S.
[edit] Hoover Constellation - The Canister without Wheels
Hoover is also notable for an extremely unusual vacuum cleaner, the Hoover Constellation, which is canister type but lacks wheels. Instead, the vacuum cleaner floats on its exhaust, operating as a hovercraft. Introduced in 1952, they are quite collectable today, and are easily identified by the spherical shape of the cannister. Hoover later brought out a development of the Contellation design, the Celebrity. Lighter and more powerful, they were excellent cleaners and floated almost too well, skidding across the carpets behind the user! Both designs remain very interesting machines; they work well in homes of nostalgia buffs. Hoover have now relaunched the Constellation, although in the UK, it is now known as 'The Maytag Satellite'. Almost identical to the original, it has such modern refinements as a powerful 2000w motor, HEPA filtration and an air-driven turbobrush.
