Balch quickly changed gears, reserving the heavy-duty Royal brand for the industrial market and creating an entirely new product for the consumer market. They started by making slight revisions to the Princess/Prince, but failed to change its metal construction or its high price. When the opportunity to purchase Royal arose, Balch borrowed $40,000, rounded up 12 other investors, and bought Royal from Erbor's estate in 1981.ĬEO Balch and his new management team overhauled the company from top to bottom. Balch lost his job as an information manager with a medical equipment manufacturer in a 1978 takeover. He entered the Navy's officers candidate school in 1958 and returned to Arthur Andersen in 1961 after completing a tour of duty in the Mediterranean. Raised in rural Coshocton, Ohio, Balch had graduated from that state's Miami University in 1953 with a degree in accounting and had gone to work for the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. Balch led a $4.5 million leveraged buyout of the venerable vacuum manufacturer. Royal had been on the market two years when John A. When Erbor died (reportedly at the company water fountain) in 1979 at the age of 82, the company's fate once again came into question. Nevertheless, by the late 1970s Royal was little more than a niche player in the national vacuum industry, having eschewed the plastics revolution for its traditionally durable, but costly and awkward metal machines. According to a company history, Royal "thrived under Erbor's leadership," moving to a modernized, suburban headquarters in 1969. Erbor led an employee buyout and became president of the rejuvenated company. Widely known as the owners of the Cincinnati Reds professional baseball club, the Schotts were more interested in what would now be called Royal's "breakup value" than in its viability as a manufacturer. Schott Organization, and was renamed Royal Appliance Mfg. The company experienced the first of many management shakeups in 1953, when it went bankrupt, was acquired by the Walter E. Geier continued to make vacuums in the postwar era, expanding his product line to include such eclectic devices as peanut roasters and hydraulic devices. Geier's appliance production continued unabated until World War II, when the company's facility was drafted to make military goods like aircraft fittings, tank transmissions, and even some incendiary devices. In 1937, the company introduced what it called "the industry's first hand-held vac," known either as "the Princess" or the "Royal Prince." Geier diversified into washing machines, hair dryers, mixers, and other small electric appliances, and was soon able to move his growing company into a four-story headquarters. Company namesake Philip Geier established the business in his garage, where he made some of the earliest vacuum cleaners by hand. Merriman and his team of "young turks" hoped to parlay the Dirt Devil brand's 90 percent awareness level into consistent sales and profitability in the mid-to-late 1990s. He was succeeded by Michael Merriman, the 38-year-old chief financial officer who had come to Royal just three years before. The company suffered a net loss in 1993 and CEO John A. But Royal's sales and profits declined precipitously in the early 1990s, as the hand-held segment matured and Royal encountered intense competition in the hotly contested upright vacuum market. Fueled by sales of its devil-red hand-vacuums, Royal rose to the number-three spot among vacuum companies, behind Hoover and Eureka. After languishing for decades, a new management team and a redesigned product line took the firm to the top of the hand-vacuum heap in the late 1980s. SICs: 3635 Household Vacuum Cleaners 3589 Service Industry Machinery, Not Elsewhere Classifiedīest known for its Dirt Devil brand vacuum cleaners, Royal Appliance Manufacturing Company is one of the world's oldest vacuum makers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |