Product type Licensed Brand Introduced 1975 | Country U.S. Markets Worldwide | |
Owner CBS Corporation
(Westinghouse Electric Corporation)(brand owner)
Electrolux Group
(brand licensee) Previous owners White Consolidated Industries | ||
White-Westinghouse is an American home appliance brand currently used under license by trademark owner CBS Corporation. It was created in 1975 when White Consolidated Industries bought the Westinghouse Electric Corporation's appliance unit. White Consolidated Industries was in turn acquired by Electrolux Group in 1986.
Electrolux made White-Westinghouse branded appliances as recently as 2006.
History
Westinghouse entered the major appliance industry by acquiring Copeman Electric Stove Company in 1917. It later moved production from Flint, Michigan to Mansfield, Ohio. Copeman had begun manufacturing its first electric ranges in 1914. Electric ranges were first demonstrated by Thomas Ahearn in 1892, gained in popularity as electrification became widespread throughout the United States.
The company claims to have made several important innovations:
The company manufactured both large and small appliances for many years. Today, appliances bearing the White-Westinghouse name are still made by Electrolux under license from CBS Corporation through its Westinghouse brand management subsidiary.
In the mid-1990s, household products and electronics bearing the White-Westinghouse name were sold by Kmart stores in the United States. This essentially gave Kmart a private-label brand in the value category for household goods. This agreement was between Windmere-Durable Holdings, Salton/Maxim Housewares and New M-Tech Corp., who licensed the name from the then Westinghouse Electric. Most larger-sized TV's were relabeled models produced by Daewoo Electronics Corp. This partnership dissolved in the early 2000s and many of the products were discontinued or switched to Kmart's "Home Essentials" brand. Televisions continued to be produced by Daewoo, but were re-labeled as Curtis-Mathes, another brand licensed to Kmart for a brief period of time.