Toastmaster is a brand name for home appliances. It was originally (1921) the name of one of the world's first automatic electric pop-up

toaster A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast. Types Pop-up toaster In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaster. ...

s for home use, the Toastmaster Model 1-A-1. Since then the Toastmaster brand has been used on a wide range of small kitchen appliances, such as

coffeemaker A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee gr ...

waffle iron A waffle iron or waffle maker is a utensil or appliance used to cook waffles. It comprises two metal plates with a connecting hinge, molded to create the honeycomb pattern found on waffles. The iron is heated and either batter is poured or dou ...

s, and

blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...

Ownership

From 1929 until 1980, the brand was owned by

McGraw Electric The McGraw Electric Company was a US manufacturer of electric appliances founded by Max McGraw in 1900. It grew through mergers and acquisitions to become a major enterprise. The best known product may have been the Toastmaster pop-up toaster. In 1 ...

, renamed to

McGraw-Edison McGraw-Edison was an American manufacturer of electrical equipment. It was created in 1957 through a merger of McGraw Electric and Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and was in turn acquired by Cooper Industries in 1985. Today, the McGraw-Edison brand is us ...

in 1957. Following a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

in 1980 to

Magic Chef Magic Chef, Inc. (formerly the American Stove Company) is an appliance brand currently owned by CNA International Inc. St. Louis origins In the 1850s John Ringen, a German immigrant to the United States, began a tinshop in St. Louis, Missouri. His ...

, the brand changed hands several times and finally went public in 1992 as Toastmaster, Inc. The company, headquartered in

Boonville, Missouri Boonville is a city and the county seat of Cooper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,964 at the 2020 census. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the Civil War, on July 17, 1861. Union forces defeated the Missouri Stat ...

, United States, was acquired by Salton, Inc., in 1999. After a series of acquisitions, the brand is now owned by

Spectrum Brands Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. is an American diversified company. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, it was established in 2005 as the successor company to Rayovac Corporation. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies, and among the largest of ...

, Inc. and is licensed to Select Brands, Inc. Commercial Toastmaster products for the food-service industry are manufactured by The Middleby Corporation. Company headquarters were moved from Boonville to

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

during the 1970s. Factories were located in Boonville, Macon, Moberly, Kirksville, and Clarence, all in Missouri, and Laurinburg, North Carolina. Three large warehouse facilities were operated in Columbia too. Product brands included Toastmaster, Manning-Bowman, Edison, Everhot, Bersted, Eskimo fans, Zero fans, Ingraham clocks and timers and several others. The Vita-Mix blender was also built under contract with Vita-Mix. Products manufactured during the 1970 and 1980 decades were toasters, griddles, box fans, waffle bakers, sandwich makers, ceiling fans, toaster ovens, convection ovens, bread makers, humidifiers, clocks, timers, etc. Other products marketed by the company in the 1970 and 1980 decades were imported from oversea factories such as mixers, meat slicers, can openers, microwave ovens, oscillating fans, etc. Revenues from a sandwich maker known as the Snackster (originally sold exclusively to Walmart) were significant and lead to the company going public on NYSE in 1992.

References

External links

History Of Toastmaster
Home appliance brands Kitchenware brands American companies established in 1921 Manufacturing companies established in 1921 American brands Boonville, Missouri {{electronics-stub