World Kitchen

History

The division was spun off from Corning in 1998 and purchased by Borden. It acquired General Housewares and Ekco in 1999.

As part of the sale to Borden, the company was required to shed the Corning name within three years. The World Kitchen name was adopted in 2000. In 2002 the company filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and underwent financial reorganization.

As of 2004, it has been privately held. Since 2013, Carl Warschausky is President and CEO. The company's website states it employs approximately 3,000 people, and has major manufacturing and distribution operations in the United States, Canada, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Domestic and international markets

World Kitchen products are typically sold by high-end retailers catering to upper class consumers in most of Asia. In China, its goods are sold at Mitsukoshi, Parkson, and Sogo outlets.

Current

World Kitchen owns/licenses such brands as:

Past

On June 1, 2004, WKI Holding Company, Inc., which operates principally through its subsidiary World Kitchen, Inc., announced that it had completed the sale of OXO International to Helen of Troy Limited for over $273 million in cash.

CorningWare and Visions by Corning was a glass cookware line introduced in 1982 and widely popular CorningWare and Visions was a vitroceramic (aluminosilicate glass) cookware line, with glass (Pyrex soda lime type) lids. Originally, they were in an amber color, when a cranberry color version came 10 years later in 1992. After World Kitchen acquired the brand in the late 1990s, and until its reintroduction in 2009, CorningWare and Visions products, were switched to ceramic stoneware production.

Present day CorningWare and Visions by World Kitchen

In 2009, CorningWare and Visions were reintroduced as vitroceramic (aluminosilicate glass) cookware for use over the stove by World Kitchens, making it available through their outlet stores and through the web.

Aluminosilicate glass or vitroceramic glass, contains 20% aluminium oxide (alumina-Al2O3) often including calcium oxide, magnesium oxide and boric oxide in relatively small amounts, but with only very small amounts of soda or potash. It is able to withstand high temperatures as high as 750 °C.

In Europe, it is the French glass group Arc International who markets the equivalent to CorningWare under the name Pyroflam and with a slight different design. The equivalent to Visions is called Pyroflam Amber. World Kichen and ARC International are glass manufacturers but they have not the capacity to manufacture vitroceramic glass.

The lids of CorningWare and Pyroflam are not made of vitroceramic material. Instead, they are made of soda-lime glass for Visions and Pyroflam Amber, while the white collection of both CorningWare and Pyroflam is made of borosilicate glass. Therefore, the lids cannot touch the stoves and fire directly, but they cope with the oven (if not touching the source of heat) or with cooking as long as they are over the vitroceramic base, which is instead made by the Keraglass factory in France.

Vitroceramic cookware is very popular among people who suffer from allergies to some metals or chemicals.

Product issues

There have been a considerable number of reports of one of World Kitchens products licensed under the name "Pyrex" exploding when in use. The company licenses the name from Corning who was the previous manufacturer of Pyrex and who made that product from a different and more expensive material called borosilicate glass. Corning manufactured Pyrex with borosilicate glass from 1915. World Kitchens products sold in the USA under the name "Pyrex" are not made from borosilicate glass but rather the less expensive soda-lime glass. The soda-lime glass can break when exposed to wide temperature changes, although it is more resistant to breakage when dropped as opposed to borosilicate glass.