Rowenta rant........ It's not your trusty old Rowenta anymore

Rowenta isn't "Rowenta" anymore, nor has it been for some time. The French
company (Group SEB) who bought Rowenta started out in 1926 making cheap
stamped out tin cookware. They marketed their first electric appliance in
1962, a coffee maker. In 1967 they invented and marketed the first odorless
electric deep fat fryer. In 1968 they bought out the American T-Fal Co. and
Scoville of America in 1969. Marketing and European acquisitions of domestic
goods companies went very well and they went public on the French stock
exchange in 1975. They acquired Rowenta and all its subsidiary companies in
1988 and established the manufacturing facilities in Mexico. They also moved
the procurement division to Hong Kong. In 1996 they established joint
commercial and industrial facilities in Shanghai. Between 1996 and 1998 they
scooped up numerous appliance and premium cookware companies in South
America through joint ventures with Chinese companies. In 1999 they did a
hostile take over and eliminated the joint ventures in China. They now own
these companies and their facilities. They took over Moulinex and Krups in
2002 and these are now manufactured in subsidiary companies in Thailand and
Taiwan. In 2004 they acquired All-Clad which is no longer made in
Switzerland but in Singapore and Malaysia. In 2006 they acquired Mirro and
WearEver.

Groupe SEB operates in more than 120 countries through its prestige brand
names - All-Clad, Arno, Calor, Krups, Lagostina, Mirro, Moulinex, Panex,
Rowenta, Samurai, Seb, Tefal and WearEver. They are also supplying parts for
production of Conair appliances. In 2000 Group SEB started to push marketing
instead of research and development. They made a major investment in
designing a computer engineering program that allows them to design new
appliances of all kinds that can interchange actual internal working parts
that will fit into all "new and improved" marketable window dressed
appliances. These parts are massed produced with more cost effective labor
and materials (read "cheap and lesser quality") and their goal is to be
selling 6 appliances per second world wide in 2008, according to their
company newsletter. (This is published out of Lyon and I had to call a
friend of mine to translate it for me this evening. He's demanded a
Chocolate Silk pie in payment for this service.)

So, those of you who have an older and very wonderful, functioning Rowenta
should guard it with your life and don't expect it to be repaired under the
warrantee's back to "like new" condition. The quality of the internal
workings are no longer available. Those of you who still think Rowenta is
the best iron on the current market, IMVHO, should save your money and read
closely the consumer reports. I'm still using my wonderful, works like a
charm, Proctor Silex steam/dry iron I got about 40 years ago and you
couldn't pry that darling out of my hands. I have friends who have older
Rowentas and they swear by them, I have friends that have new Rowentas and
they swear *at* them. The name brand of Rowenta has gone the same way as
many name brand sewing machines.......they look good in the ads, the sales
people talk a good game but they are riding high on past reputation.

Just my 2 centimes worth,

Val

That is some research Val. I always enjoy reading your posts.

--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz
"Val" wrote in message
...
Rowenta isn't "Rowenta" anymore, nor has it been for some time. The French
company (Group SEB) who bought Rowenta started out in 1926 making cheap
stamped out tin cookware. They marketed their first electric appliance in
1962, a coffee maker. In 1967 they invented and marketed the first
odorless electric deep fat fryer. In 1968 they bought out the American
T-Fal Co. and Scoville of America in 1969. Marketing and European
acquisitions of domestic goods companies went very well and they went
public on the French stock exchange in 1975. They acquired Rowenta and all
its subsidiary companies in 1988 and established the manufacturing
facilities in Mexico. They also moved the procurement division to Hong
Kong. In 1996 they established joint commercial and industrial facilities
in Shanghai. Between 1996 and 1998 they scooped up numerous appliance and
premium cookware companies in South America through joint ventures with
Chinese companies. In 1999 they did a hostile take over and eliminated the
joint ventures in China. They now own these companies and their
facilities. They took over Moulinex and Krups in 2002 and these are now
manufactured in subsidiary companies in Thailand and Taiwan. In 2004 they
acquired All-Clad which is no longer made in Switzerland but in Singapore
and Malaysia. In 2006 they acquired Mirro and WearEver.

Groupe SEB operates in more than 120 countries through its prestige brand
names - All-Clad, Arno, Calor, Krups, Lagostina, Mirro, Moulinex, Panex,
Rowenta, Samurai, Seb, Tefal and WearEver. They are also supplying parts
for production of Conair appliances. In 2000 Group SEB started to push
marketing instead of research and development. They made a major
investment in designing a computer engineering program that allows them to
design new appliances of all kinds that can interchange actual internal
working parts that will fit into all "new and improved" marketable window
dressed appliances. These parts are massed produced with more cost
effective labor and materials (read "cheap and lesser quality") and their
goal is to be selling 6 appliances per second world wide in 2008,
according to their company newsletter. (This is published out of Lyon and
I had to call a friend of mine to translate it for me this evening. He's
demanded a Chocolate Silk pie in payment for this service.)

So, those of you who have an older and very wonderful, functioning Rowenta
should guard it with your life and don't expect it to be repaired under
the warrantee's back to "like new" condition. The quality of the internal
workings are no longer available. Those of you who still think Rowenta is
the best iron on the current market, IMVHO, should save your money and
read closely the consumer reports. I'm still using my wonderful, works
like a charm, Proctor Silex steam/dry iron I got about 40 years ago and
you couldn't pry that darling out of my hands. I have friends who have
older Rowentas and they swear by them, I have friends that have new
Rowentas and they swear *at* them. The name brand of Rowenta has gone the
same way as many name brand sewing machines.......they look good in the
ads, the sales people talk a good game but they are riding high on past
reputation.

Just my 2 centimes worth,

Val

Aha . . . Well! . . . @#$! . . . my Rowentas are maybe 3 years old, both
made in Germany. I will tell the gators to be alert. I'll mention that
Rowenta bandits taste like chicken. Polly

"Val" wrote Rowenta isn't "Rowenta" anymore, nor has it been for some
time. The French
company (Group SEB) who bought Rowenta started out in 1926 making cheap
stamped out tin cookware. They marketed their first electric appliance in
1962, a coffee maker. In 1967 they invented and marketed the first
odorless electric deep fat fryer. In 1968 they bought out the American
T-Fal Co. and Scoville of America in 1969. Marketing and European
acquisitions of domestic goods companies went very well and they went
public on the French stock exchange in 1975. They acquired Rowenta and
all its subsidiary companies in 1988 and established the manufacturing
facilities in Mexico. They also moved the procurement division to Hong
Kong. In 1996 they established joint commercial and industrial facilities
in Shanghai. Between 1996 and 1998 they scooped up numerous appliance and
premium cookware companies in South America through joint ventures with
Chinese companies. In 1999 they did a hostile take over and eliminated
the joint ventures in China. They now own these companies and their
facilities. They took over Moulinex and Krups in 2002 and these are now
manufactured in subsidiary companies in Thailand and Taiwan. In 2004 they
acquired All-Clad which is no longer made in Switzerland but in Singapore
and Malaysia. In 2006 they acquired Mirro and WearEver.

Groupe SEB operates in more than 120 countries through its prestige brand
names - All-Clad, Arno, Calor, Krups, Lagostina, Mirro, Moulinex, Panex,
Rowenta, Samurai, Seb, Tefal and WearEver. They are also supplying parts
for production of Conair appliances. In 2000 Group SEB started to push
marketing instead of research and development. They made a major
investment in designing a computer engineering program that allows them
to design new appliances of all kinds that can interchange actual
internal working parts that will fit into all "new and improved"
marketable window dressed appliances. These parts are massed produced
with more cost effective labor and materials (read "cheap and lesser
quality") and their goal is to be selling 6 appliances per second world
wide in 2008, according to their company newsletter. (This is published
out of Lyon and I had to call a friend of mine to translate it for me
this evening. He's demanded a Chocolate Silk pie in payment for this
service.)

So, those of you who have an older and very wonderful, functioning
Rowenta should guard it with your life and don't expect it to be repaired
under the warrantee's back to "like new" condition. The quality of the
internal workings are no longer available. Those of you who still think
Rowenta is the best iron on the current market, IMVHO, should save your
money and read closely the consumer reports. I'm still using my
wonderful, works like a charm, Proctor Silex steam/dry iron I got about
40 years ago and you couldn't pry that darling out of my hands. I have
friends who have older Rowentas and they swear by them, I have friends
that have new Rowentas and they swear *at* them. The name brand of
Rowenta has gone the same way as many name brand sewing
machines.......they look good in the ads, the sales people talk a good
game but they are riding high on past reputation.