magic clean
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2004
- Messages
- 511
50 years ago:
"Editor's Note: The late Ed Klingler, longtime business editor of The Evansville Press, wrote a book about Evansville's business history in the late 1970s. He called it "How A City Founded to Make Money Made It." It was published by the University of Evansville.
The Evansville Business Journal will print excerpts from Klingler's book over the next several months. We thought Klingler's own preface would suffice for these excerpts.
"This study does not pretend to be a history of Evansville. It focuses on one aspect of Evansville's past 1/8 the economics of the community. Stripped of its academic trimmings, economics simply means bread and butter."
The man who stood before a room filled with Evansville business leaders was composed, carefully and conservatively dressed, handsome, the epitome of gentility, and he spoke with complete candor.
"Within five years," he said, "we expect to have sales amounting to $500 million a year. We expect," he added, "to substantially increase our Evansville operations. We expect to fulfill our civic obligations to the community in a manner that will make us a desirable corporate citizen."
Then he voiced a warning: "We do not, however, intend to extend ourselves in Evansville to the point where the community is dependent on us for its economic welfare. We do not believe it would be good business for us, and by this time, you must be aware it would not be good business for you. You already have had experience in having all your economic eggs in one basket."
It was 1955 and the speaker was Elisha Gray II. He was the chief of Whirlpool Corporation of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Mich., and his company had just bought Seeger Refrigerator Company, manufacturer of Coldspot refrigerators for Sears, and the plant on U.S. 41 North being abandoned by International Harvester, manufacturer of the Harvester refrigerator, which had decided to get out of the business after a fruitless 10-year effort that produced no profit.
Elisha Gray's comment about limiting Whirlpool's Evansville growth might appear to be unpalatable to the civic leaders who heard him, but they could not quarrel with his logic, for at this time Servel also was in deep trouble.
The situation had become serious enough to produce considerable public concern. Whirlpool's advent on the Evansville scene did, in fact, already make the public dependent on it. There was a willingness to accept Gray's comments as gospel, for since 1929 Whirlpool was one of the nation's biggest manufacturers of home laundry equipment.
Gray was a little over optimistic in 1955 in his estimate of $500 million by 1960. It took seven years instead of five to pass that magic milestone.
Whirlpool's growth was the most spectacular in the home appliance industry, and annual sales were to reach $1.5 billion before 1975, less than 20 years after coming to Evansville.
Among the properties acquired by Whirlpool, one a a 1 million square foot building in Fort Smith, Ark., a had a direct bearing on Evansville. In this plant, Whirlpool put its overflow production requirements for refrigerators and freezers.
Whirlpool acquired patents on Servel's refrigeration projects and one of Servel's newer buildings on East Franklin Street, and replaced Servel as Evansville's leading industry.
This enviable position was chiefly due to Sears, Roebuck and Company. Sears was the outlet for 60 to 65 percent of Whirlpool's total product. However, the volume of products sold under Whirlpool's own label got bigger every year. Without Sears, Whirlpool was still a big company"
"Editor's Note: The late Ed Klingler, longtime business editor of The Evansville Press, wrote a book about Evansville's business history in the late 1970s. He called it "How A City Founded to Make Money Made It." It was published by the University of Evansville.
The Evansville Business Journal will print excerpts from Klingler's book over the next several months. We thought Klingler's own preface would suffice for these excerpts.
"This study does not pretend to be a history of Evansville. It focuses on one aspect of Evansville's past 1/8 the economics of the community. Stripped of its academic trimmings, economics simply means bread and butter."
The man who stood before a room filled with Evansville business leaders was composed, carefully and conservatively dressed, handsome, the epitome of gentility, and he spoke with complete candor.
"Within five years," he said, "we expect to have sales amounting to $500 million a year. We expect," he added, "to substantially increase our Evansville operations. We expect to fulfill our civic obligations to the community in a manner that will make us a desirable corporate citizen."
Then he voiced a warning: "We do not, however, intend to extend ourselves in Evansville to the point where the community is dependent on us for its economic welfare. We do not believe it would be good business for us, and by this time, you must be aware it would not be good business for you. You already have had experience in having all your economic eggs in one basket."
It was 1955 and the speaker was Elisha Gray II. He was the chief of Whirlpool Corporation of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Mich., and his company had just bought Seeger Refrigerator Company, manufacturer of Coldspot refrigerators for Sears, and the plant on U.S. 41 North being abandoned by International Harvester, manufacturer of the Harvester refrigerator, which had decided to get out of the business after a fruitless 10-year effort that produced no profit.
Elisha Gray's comment about limiting Whirlpool's Evansville growth might appear to be unpalatable to the civic leaders who heard him, but they could not quarrel with his logic, for at this time Servel also was in deep trouble.
The situation had become serious enough to produce considerable public concern. Whirlpool's advent on the Evansville scene did, in fact, already make the public dependent on it. There was a willingness to accept Gray's comments as gospel, for since 1929 Whirlpool was one of the nation's biggest manufacturers of home laundry equipment.
Gray was a little over optimistic in 1955 in his estimate of $500 million by 1960. It took seven years instead of five to pass that magic milestone.
Whirlpool's growth was the most spectacular in the home appliance industry, and annual sales were to reach $1.5 billion before 1975, less than 20 years after coming to Evansville.
Among the properties acquired by Whirlpool, one a a 1 million square foot building in Fort Smith, Ark., a had a direct bearing on Evansville. In this plant, Whirlpool put its overflow production requirements for refrigerators and freezers.
Whirlpool acquired patents on Servel's refrigeration projects and one of Servel's newer buildings on East Franklin Street, and replaced Servel as Evansville's leading industry.
This enviable position was chiefly due to Sears, Roebuck and Company. Sears was the outlet for 60 to 65 percent of Whirlpool's total product. However, the volume of products sold under Whirlpool's own label got bigger every year. Without Sears, Whirlpool was still a big company"
