The West Bend Company was a

West Bend, Wisconsin West Bend is the county seat of Washington County, Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,752. History Early history and settlement Northeastern Washington County's earliest known inhabitants were pre-Columbian Mound Builder ...

, company from 1911 to 2001. The West Bend Company manufactured

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

cookware Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...

and electrical appliances, but also made

two-stroke cycle A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, including outboard boat motors.

Art Ingels Art Ingels (sometimes misspelled as Ingles; May 14, 1918 - December 16, 1981) is known as 'the father of karting'. In 1956, while he was a race car builder at Kurtis Kraft, a famous builder of Indy race cars during the 1950s, he assembled the firs ...

used a surplus West Bend engine to power the first

kart Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ful ...

Clayton Jacobson II Clayton Jacobson II (October 12, 1933 – August 18, 2022) was an American inventor who was credited with inventing the jet ski. Biography Early life Jacobson was born in Multnomah County Hospital, Portland, Oregon, on October 12, 1933, to Cla ...

used a West Bend 2-stroke motor to power the first stand-up

Jet Ski Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft (PWC) manufactured by Kawasaki, a Japanese company. The term is often used generically to refer to any type of personal watercraft used mainly for recreation, and it is also used as a verb to ...

. The engine division of West Bend was sold to

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

, then to Brunswick, and finally to US Motor Power. In 2001, Regal Ware, Inc. of Kewaskum, Wisconsin, acquired certain assets of the West Bend Company. In 2003, Regal Ware sold the Small Kitchen Appliance Division of the West Bend Company to Focus Products Group LLC. The Small Kitchen Appliance Division is now known as

West Bend Housewares West Bend Housewares, LLC, based in West Bend, Wisconsin, produces household appliances such as breadmakers, mixers, coffee urns, slow cookers and woks. The West Bend Company, founded in 1911, was owned by Regal Ware Inc. but was sold to Vern ...

. Regal Ware retained the West Bend Cookware Division and product lines of the West Bend Company; and continues to manufacture the cookware products in West Bend and Kewaskum, Wisconsin, under the brand names Lifetime and Royal Queen. This represents more than 100 years of continuous manufacture of West Bend Cookware product lines in West Bend, Wisconsin.

External links

Archived Records of the CompanyDetailed History of the West Bend Company
Manufacturing companies established in 1911 Defunct companies based in Wisconsin Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2003 Marine engine manufacturers Home appliance brands Kitchenware brands 1911 establishments in Wisconsin 2003 disestablishments in Wisconsin Engine manufacturers of the United States {{US-manufacturing-company-stub