Avco sells Bendix to Philco, 1956

[peterh770]

Fight for Appliances
Monday, Nov. 12, 1956
The holder of the oldest name in automatic washers tossed in the towel last week. Bendix Home Appliances, which brought out the world's first automatic washer in 1937, will be sold, pending approval of final terms, by Avco Manufacturing Corp. to Philco Corp. Avco also said it will close its money-losing Crosley appliance business (refrigerators, ranges, radio-TV), leaving 78 distributors around the nation with nothing to distribute. Chairman Victor Emanuel ticked off a host of reasons for Avco's retreat from appliances: "Increasingly severe competition, large over-capacities, rampant price-cutting, rising costs of labor and material."

 

[bongobro]

Change "Bendix" to "Maytag" and "Ph

and you'd have a financial news item from 50 years later.

Interesting how some things never change: "Increasingly severe competition" ... "large over-capacities" ... "rampant price-cutting" (that probably did change) ... "rising costs of labor and material."

 

[tomturbomatic]

Don't forget Philco to Ford, Frigidaire to WCI, Westinghouse major appliances to WCI, Westinghouse small electrics to Scovill, Universal small electrics to GE, GE small electrics to Black & Decker,Kelvinator/AMC to WCI, Hardwick to Maytag, Hoover to Maytag, Admiral to Maytag, Hamilton to Franklin, Youngstown to Tappan, Amana to Caloric and more.

 

[gansky1]

Whirlpool to Haier?

Shhhhhhhhh! Don't even think it!

 

[peteski50]

But the worst!

Worse than all of them when WCI purchased Frigidaire!

 

[jetcone]

Oh No it

was a sad day when Bendix closed its doors. And now we have the LG combo when you open it up and look at the layout how familiar it looks.

All these reasons for closing hold no water for me because:
How many washers and dryers have been sold in this country since 1956 do you think?? When will we ever not need to do laundry?

I think its top heavy management and manufacturing techniques and correct sales tactics that kept Whirlpool going where Bendix floundered. What shareholder or floor worker is going to question an exec. about the company. Maybe that should happen more maybe Execs should be held accountable for the path of the company.

Competition and pricing has always been around, it was around before Bendix was founded , it was around the whole history of Maytag. Heck Maytag actually got going DURING the depression.

I think there's something else at work here no one has put their finger on before. Just what I'm not sure.

Greg you should be SLAPPPPPEED! PUBLICLY TOO!

 

[gansky1]

I think there's something else at work here no one has p

Perhaps it was the hole in the rubber tub of the Economat...

I've heard speculation about that tub being a warranty service drain on Bendix, perhaps it was a combination of factors adding to the fact that appliances were not Bendix's core business.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Perhaps it was the wealth of Aviation Corporation (AVCO) that acquired and supported Bendix for the Bendix radios and Bendix brakes and played around with the idea of a combo during WWII when appliance sales were strictly controlled, but profit on military contracts allowed them to cover these R & D costs. After the war, they were able to start turning out washers fast, but all of the newest, most popular machines were top loader agitator washers. With the Korean Police Action and the cold war starting, AVCO did not need or want to bother itself with designing an agitator washer that used spinning to extract water or any other home appliances, no matter how revolutionary the automatic tumbler washer was before WWII. They sort of adopted a "been there; done that" attitude about the appliances.

The really sad thing is that Whirlpool did not buy Bendix. Sears is what made money for Whirlpool. If WP had the Bendix patents on the combo, Sears would still be selling them today and they would probably be in at least half of the homes in America. Sears could also have offered a tumbler washer and helped them grow in popularity, probably saving untold resources over the last 50+ years. It probably also would have ruined competition in home laundry appliances.

GE has been looking for someone to take over their appliance lines for a long time.

 

[jetcone]

WOW Tom

What a novel idea! WP buying Bendix! That would have worked all around. Dodo's to WP! Negative 10 points I'd say!

 

[jetcone]

Actually I must correct this thread while

I still remember PETER!
AVCO sold Bendix to "Bendix Home Appliances" in 1949, BHA sold to PHILCO in 1956. There were two sales. Tom was right Bendix military saw no love for making appliances actually right from the begining in 1938. They had to twist Bendix's arm to use his name for recognition at the time and pay him royalties directly the whole time it was owned by Bendix Aviation.

Jet