Viking Range
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viking Range Corporation is a privately held company which manufactures professional kitchen appliances for home use. Viking originated the "professional" segment of kitchen appliances with its introduction of the first commercial-grade range for home use in 1987. Today the company offers two complete lines of premium appliances including cooking, ventilation, clean-up and refrigeration, as well as various outdoor appliances. The company's products compete with those made by GE Monogram, Sub-Zero Refrigerator, Dacor, Thermador, Miele, and Wolf. Headquartered on historic Cotton Row in downtown Greenwood, Mississippi, Viking Range employs more than 1,000 people at three different manufacturing facilities in Leflore County.
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[edit] History
In the 1980's Fred Carl, Jr., founder and president of Viking Range, discovered some major flaws in the design of commercial appliances with respect to their installation in a residential kitchen. These flaws among other things made them impractical and undesirable for use in the home. After much research and development, Carl worked through the problems and finally introduced the first commercial-type range in 1987. Since then the company has expanded with its increased success and currently manufactures such premium items as cookware, cutlery and countertop appliances.
[edit] The Viking Store
The Viking Store was created to entertain, educate and empower those in search of culinary excellence by providing the best in gourmet retail products, premium cooking classes for all ages and access to the full line of Viking appliances. The concept was created by Fred Carl. In 2005, Maple Hollow Holdings purchased the stores from the Viking Range Corporation. There are currently five Viking Stores in Atlanta Georgia, Cleveland Ohio, St. Louis Missouri, Nashville Tennessee and Destin, Florida.
[edit] Greenwood's Viking Renaissance
The establishment of Viking's hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi as a tourist destination came with the opening of The Alluvian Hotel on Howard Street in 2003. Built as a subsidiary of Viking Range, The Alluvian is a cosmopolitan boutique hotel located in the heart of historic downtown Greenwood.
In 2005, Greenwood got a big shot of urbana with the opening of a 7,000-square-foot spa, a cooking school and a bakery.
The Alluvian Spa, Viking Cooking School and the Mockingbird Bakery are all the work of Viking Hospitality Group, and serve as entertainment only for the corporate clientele that Viking brings to town for training and demonstrations.
As for Viking Range's popularity, advertisement and other ways of bringing the company around to people, Alton Brown, chef and host of pop culture-infused cooking show Good Eats, thanks the company for their many products. Also, its advertisement campaign was called "aggressive," selling such things as a six-burner stovetop with oven.
Outside of Viking’s development, other private ventures have flourished in the blocks surrounding The Alluvian, including many museums, boutique retail stores, restaurants and antique stores.
The Show Emeril Live also has stainless steel appliances.
