firedome
Well-known member
Saw the link (para. 3 below) in an old www.retrorenovation.com post (RIP!)
It seems there was major litigation by WCI and others around 1985 to prevent this from happening. At the conclusion of the case a temporary injunction was issued. Some very interesting facts here, as well as history that I was not aware of. For example I hadn't known that KA was in a significant decline by the mid '80s and that D&K, the new-ish owners of Hobart, wanted it sold. Also that D&M was also in a steep sales dive, becoming a less viable potential competitor.
Obviously the merger happened, but as stated did Emerson indeed manufacture KA-21 Series and some later KAs (through 23?) before WP exercised their option to fully acquire Emerson per the terms? They were also required to allow Emerson to make "model 21" and sell ISE machines under that name, but did they actually make KAs also? Another real info gem was the court's prediction that any foreign makers (mainly Sanyo and Panasonic who made smalls at the time), would be unlikely to begin US manufacturing of large appliances due to steep start-up costs.. D'oh! well they sure got that one wrong!
From the original RR article in "Comments", courtesy of "la573" (someone here?)
HOME / KITCHEN / APPLIANCES & DECOR
"Never was a dishwasher more the subject of legal wrangling than the KitchenAid KDS-21 (details here: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/612/1009/1576161/ ). Hobart wanted to exit the residential appliance market in 1984 by selling the KitchenAid division to Whirlpool, but several other companies sued to try to block the buyout on antitrust grounds – the combined WP/KA would dominate the dishwasher market. So a an 8-year sweetheart deal was arranged where a third company, Emerson (maker of the popular InSinkErator disposers) would take over building Hobart’s home products, including building the KDS-21 exclusively for Whirlpool using Kitchenaid branding, whilst Emerson could also sell earlier or different Hobart designs under their own Emerson name, or for other companies. They did sell some ISE dishwashers during that time, but they never bothered making any for third-party companies. After the 8 years lapsed, Whirlpool acquired the whole works from Emerson, and soon thereafter replaced the distinctive Hobart design with cheaper Whirlpool-derived dishwashers that lacked most of the features that made Hobart Kitchenaids special. Consumers quickly caught on, and started buying Bosch and other new high-end brands instead. Eventually Whirlpool realized they needed to make their Kitchenaid dishwashers more distinct from the cheaper Whirlpool models, and the current Kitchenaid models are again competitive, better in some ways than the old Hobart units and worse in others, but clearly something worth more than a basic Whirlpool dishwasher."
Very interesting indeed.
Any response from our highly knowledgeable AW.o commentariat?
It seems there was major litigation by WCI and others around 1985 to prevent this from happening. At the conclusion of the case a temporary injunction was issued. Some very interesting facts here, as well as history that I was not aware of. For example I hadn't known that KA was in a significant decline by the mid '80s and that D&K, the new-ish owners of Hobart, wanted it sold. Also that D&M was also in a steep sales dive, becoming a less viable potential competitor.
Obviously the merger happened, but as stated did Emerson indeed manufacture KA-21 Series and some later KAs (through 23?) before WP exercised their option to fully acquire Emerson per the terms? They were also required to allow Emerson to make "model 21" and sell ISE machines under that name, but did they actually make KAs also? Another real info gem was the court's prediction that any foreign makers (mainly Sanyo and Panasonic who made smalls at the time), would be unlikely to begin US manufacturing of large appliances due to steep start-up costs.. D'oh! well they sure got that one wrong!
From the original RR article in "Comments", courtesy of "la573" (someone here?)
HOME / KITCHEN / APPLIANCES & DECOR
"Never was a dishwasher more the subject of legal wrangling than the KitchenAid KDS-21 (details here: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/612/1009/1576161/ ). Hobart wanted to exit the residential appliance market in 1984 by selling the KitchenAid division to Whirlpool, but several other companies sued to try to block the buyout on antitrust grounds – the combined WP/KA would dominate the dishwasher market. So a an 8-year sweetheart deal was arranged where a third company, Emerson (maker of the popular InSinkErator disposers) would take over building Hobart’s home products, including building the KDS-21 exclusively for Whirlpool using Kitchenaid branding, whilst Emerson could also sell earlier or different Hobart designs under their own Emerson name, or for other companies. They did sell some ISE dishwashers during that time, but they never bothered making any for third-party companies. After the 8 years lapsed, Whirlpool acquired the whole works from Emerson, and soon thereafter replaced the distinctive Hobart design with cheaper Whirlpool-derived dishwashers that lacked most of the features that made Hobart Kitchenaids special. Consumers quickly caught on, and started buying Bosch and other new high-end brands instead. Eventually Whirlpool realized they needed to make their Kitchenaid dishwashers more distinct from the cheaper Whirlpool models, and the current Kitchenaid models are again competitive, better in some ways than the old Hobart units and worse in others, but clearly something worth more than a basic Whirlpool dishwasher."
Very interesting indeed.
Any response from our highly knowledgeable AW.o commentariat?
