Industry manufacturing Type of business Limited liability company | Brands Vornado, Vornadofan | |
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Formerly called Vornadofan, O. A. Sutton Company Products fans and household appliances Headquarters Andover, Kansas, United States Founders Ralph K. Odor (1945), Ottis A. Sutton (1945), Michael Coup (1990) | ||
Vornado is a US firm based in Andover, Kansas, that designs and manufactures household fans and other small appliances related to air circulation. The current incarnation of the company was founded in 1989, two years after the death of Ralph K. Odor (1895-1987), who founded the firm in the 1930s with Ottis A. Sutton in Wichita, Kansas. In fact, the name of the company is a portmanteau of "Vortex" and "Tornado".
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History
Ralph K. Odor experimented with different designs to improve airplane propellers in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, Odor met Ottis A. Sutton and the two men continued to experiment with different designs for propellers and were granted several patents. Odor and Sutton realized the propeller designs could also be applied to household fans, and after the end of World War II, the O.A. Sutton Corporation began marketing Vornado fans. Early fans were designed by industrial designer Richard Ten Eyck. The company later added a line of air conditioners.
Amid sales that had fallen to half of its peak, the company ceased production in September 1958 and began liquidating its inventory, and manufacturing and office equipment were auctioned off in June 1959. Sutton's air conditioner coil manufacturing line was purchased by Gibson Refrigerator Co. and moved from Wichita. In October 1959, the O.A. Sutton Corp. was purchased by the discount department store chain Two Guys, which subsequently renamed itself Vornado Inc. The consolidated company expanded the Vornado line of appliances to more than 50 in under three years, including ranges, freezers, hair dryers, and electronic can openers sold by the Two Guys chain as well as other dealers, though the manufacturing operations were outsourced. That company eventually divested all retail operations and evolved into what is now Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.
Current
The Vornado brand name was resurrected in 1989 by Michael Coup. Operating under the name Vornado Air Circulation Systems Inc., Coup obtained the rights to the Vornado trademark and worked with original designer Richard Ten Eyck to come up with a new fan design. In December 2006, Vornado Air Circulation Systems sold most of its assets to a private equity firm, which formed a new company, Vornado Air LLC.
The brand is favored by former Florida governor Charlie Crist.