Whirlpool Corporation
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Global Presence
Whirlpool Corporation is the largest home appliances industry in the world, and it owns some of the most acknowledged brands in this market: Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Bauknecht, Brastemp and Consul.
It has around 67 thousand associates, who understand and anticipate wishes and needs of consumers, thus creating the next products generation, which will make their lives even more practical.
Whirlpool acts in a sustainable manner, and such commitment is applied on daily basis to its manufacturing processes, to its products and to its relationship with consumers, associates and communities. Its actions in social and environmental areas have already resulted in several achievements, including its inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for five consecutive years.
Nearly one century of history
1911 – startup of Whirlpool Corporation, in Michigan (USA), with the foundation of Upton Machine Company, to manufacture washing machines, by Mr. Louis Upton.
1916 –partnership between Upton Machine Company and Sears Roebuck. Results were so positive that the demand shortly exceeded its production.
1929 – Establishment of Nineteen Hundred Corporation, from the merger of Upton Machine Company and Nineteen Hundred Washer Company.
1942 and 1945 – the company's equipments are employed to manufacture weapons to the Second World War, as has happened to most of North-American factories. Production of washing machines only resumed when the War was over.
1950 – The company is renamed as Whirlpool Corporation. The name Whirlpool appeared in 1906, as a brand for washing machines from Horton Manufacturing Company, which was acquired in 1922 by Nineteen Hundred Washer Corporation.
1955 – Expansion of the products' line: automatic dryers, refrigerators, stoves and air-conditioners.
1967 – Launch of the customer care service, currently known as Customer Interaction Center.
80s and 90s – expansiton of the company towards Europe, Mexico, Canada, China, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil.
2006 – It becomes the largest domestic appliances manufacturer in the world, through the acquisition of Maytag, one of the key domestic appliances companies in the United States. It reaches revenues of nearly 19 billion US Dollars, with 72 production and technology centers, and over 70 thousand associates.
2003 – It becomes the first domestic appliances company announcing a global target to reduce gases generating the greenhouse effect. The commitment is to reduce emissions in 3% over 1998 levels until 2008.
2007 – Increase of the reduction target to 6.6% until 2012. It also reduces by 90% the emission of chemical pollutants vis-à-vis 1987, while production rises around 80%.
2009 – Achieves 6th position in the ranking of the most admired companies in the world, at the Fortune magazine. For the fifth consecutive time, it is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.