Scott Fetzer Company

The Scott Fetzer Company is a conglomerate headquartered in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, Ohio and owned by Berkshire Hathaway, which bought the company (then known as Scott & Fetzer) in early 1986 for about $400 million.[1] The business was started by George H. Scott and Carl S. Fetzer in 1914 as a machine shop under the name George H. Scott Machine Co.; the name changed to Scott & Fetzer Machine Co. in 1917 and Scott & Fetzer Co. in 1919. It began selling Kirby vacuum cleaners by 1922. The company began to expand and diversify into other areas by 1964.[2]

Best known to the public for its ownership of the Kirby brand and of the World Book encyclopedia, Scott Fetzer also controls more than a dozen other businesses, and in financial analysis has been noted over the years for its consistently high record of return on equity.[3]

The companies it owns include:

  • Adalet
  • Altaquip
  • Arbortech
  • Carefree
  • CWP Technologies
  • Douglas Quikut (maker of Ginsu knives)
  • FRANCE power solutions
  • Halex company
  • Kingston
  • Kirby Company
  • Meriam
  • Powerex
  • Scot laboratories
  • Scott care
  • STAHL
  • United Consumer Financial Services
  • Wayne Combustion Systems
  • Wayne Water Systems
  • Western Enterprises
  • World Book

References

  1. Richard W. Stevenson, "Berkshire to Buy Scott & Fetzer", The New York Times, October 30, 1985.
  2. "Scott and Fetzer Co.", Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western University (accessed June 26, 2017).
  3. Robert G. Hagstrom (1997). The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-0-471-17750-0.
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