Who Are Hoover?

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Details: Friday, 25 January 2008

Hoover is a brand name that is almost exclusively associated with the vacuum cleaner today, despite the fact that the company actually manufactures many other electrical household items and experiences great success doing so year in year out. The fact that a vacuum cleaner is also known colloquially as a Hoover in the UK pays testament to this. The history of the Hoover company is long and complex and we will explore it in some detail here before taking a look at what the company has to offer in terms of the modern day vacuum cleaner...

Origins

The Hoover Company started out in North Canton, Ohio in the early years of the Twentieth Century. James Murray Spangler, a janitor at a local department store in North Canton, designed the initial machine in 1907. It combined a pillowcase for a bag, a broom handle, a motor and a soapbox and was effective in picking up dirt and dust. So much so that he shared his machine with a friend that he thought could market it effectively, one W H Hoover.

The Hoover Company was born. Spangler stayed on to design more models but Hoover bought the patent. Although the company did experience success in America, it truly found its niche elsewhere. The vacuum cleaners that Hoover manufactured were a huge success in the UK and Ireland.
Hoover was actually the inventor of two extremely important vacuum innovations during its early history. A developmental branch of the business was established in 1926 and actually formulated and patented the beater bar (the bar that loosens carpet dirt) and the self-propelling mechanism a little later on, thus keeping Hoover at the cutting edge of technology at that time.

Modern Day Hoover

Today, Hoover has branched out into various different sections of the consumer market. They create and manufacture personal care electronics, kitchen appliances and industrial equipment as well as the vacuum cleaner now, which keep the brand popular worldwide. However, the brand is actually now used by two separate companies.

Today in the United States, the Hoover Company operates as part of Techtronic, but the Whirlpool Corporation operated it until 2006. Hoover UK/Europe is a completely different company but has stayed in the marketplace as a viable brand because of the immense popularity that the company enjoys there. Candy, an Italian electronics firm, owns it at the present moment. However, the Hoover brand is still doing well and going strong both sides of the Atlantic. There are many more years left in the brand yet as a result of its long history and association with high quality. It is likely that Hoover will still populate store shelves for years to come.