Magic Chef

Magic Chef, Inc. (formerly the American Stove Company) is an appliance brand currently owned by CNA International Inc.

Ad for a Magic Chef gas range (1948)

St. Louis origins

In the 1850s John Ringen, a German immigrant to the United States, began a tinshop in St. Louis, Missouri. His business prospered and, in 1870, he took in a partner, George August Kahle, who had immigrated to America from Germany in 1867. The business sold housewares, early washing machines, and cooking stoves they called "quick meals". In 1881, George Kahle persuaded his brothers-in-law, Charles and Louis Stockstrom, to set up a shop to manufacture stoves. These four principals then organized two corporations, the Quick Meal Stove Company and the Ringen Stove Company.

American Stove Company and the Magic Chef brand name

Quick Meal manufactured the stoves, with Ringen Stove handling sales and distribution of the entire output of Quick Meal's production. The phenomenal growth of these two companies during the 1880s and 1890s led to the merger of eight other stove companies in St. Louis, Chicago and Cleveland in 1901 to form the American Stove Company. American Stove introduced the first oven temperature control device in 1914.

In 1929 it began using the brand name Magic Chef. The Magic Chef name was so successful as an oven and stove brand that American Stove Company changed its name to Magic Chef, Inc. in 1951.[1][2][3] The company remained well known for its gas stoves, but attempts to spread the brand to other household appliances were unsuccessful.

Sales and spread

In 1957, it was merged with the Food Giant Markets of California.[4][5] In 1958, it was sold to Dixie Products,[6][7] a small stove company of Cleveland, Tennessee, after selling off a few underperforming divisions of Magic Chef.[8] By 1986, the company had become the 249th largest industrial company in the nation, and was sold to Maytag.[9] Magic Chef also made home furnaces and air conditioners; that operation was sold to Lennox International in 1988.[10]

Whirlpool Corporation acquired Maytag Corporation in 2006.[11][12] Magic Chef has been spun out to CNA International Inc./MC Appliance Corporation,[13][14] which imports and markets small appliances under several brand names.

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See also

References
  1. "American Stove Plans Name Change". Wall Street Journal. October 18, 1951. p. 13. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  2. "To Vote on Name Change". New York Times. October 18, 1951. p. 45. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  3. "Progress On Stove Combine: Capitalization Of Between $40,000,000 And $50,000,000 American Stove Co. Incorporated In New Jersey Charles B. Warren Doesn't Know Much About It Says His Plans Have Made Considerable Progress: Other Detroit Concerns Soon to Increase Their Capital Stock". Detroit Free Press. December 22, 1901. p. A8. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  4. "Magic Chef Confirms Plan to Merge With Food Giant Markets: Action Depends on Internal Revenue Ruling and Approval by Magic Chef Stockholders". Wall Street Journal. May 22, 1957. p. 7. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  5. "Magic Chef-Food Giant Plan Merger". Los Angeles Times. May 21, 1957. p. C9. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  6. "Food Giant Markets Sells Its Magic Chef Division". Wall Street Journal. September 19, 1958. p. 9. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  7. "Magic Chef: Unit of Food Giant Markets Is Sold to Dixie Products". New York Times. September 19, 1958. p. 45. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  8. "Food Giant '58 Plans Told". Los Angeles Times. February 27, 1958. p. C9. Alternate Link via ProQuest.
  9. Cuff, Daniel F. (March 25, 1986). "Maytag to Acquire Magic Chef for $740 Million". New York Times.
  10. "Briefs". New York Times. November 22, 1988.
  11. "Whirlpool completes acquisition of Maytag: Appliance maker to immediately start". NBC News. March 31, 2006.
  12. "Whirlpool's Chief Touts Maytag Offer: The CEO says his company's bid of more than $1.3 billion is the 'best opportunity.'". Los Angeles Times. July 19, 2005.
  13. "Magic Chef". MC Appliance.
  14. "Company Overview of Cna International, Inc". Bloomberg.
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