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Instant Pot maker announces merger with kitchenware giant Corelle Brands
Vito Pilieci
Updated: March 4, 2019
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Ottawa’s Instant Brands Inc., maker of the popular Instant Pot, has agreed to a deal that will see it join houseware giant Corelle Brands LLC.
Instant Brands, which is headquartered in Kanata and has four factories in China making its Instant Pot kitchen appliance, announced the news Monday morning, saying the agreement will help it expand globally at a much faster pace.
“We are thrilled to partner with a global leader in Corelle Brands as we look to embark on our next chapter of strategic growth and expansion,” said Robert Wang, founder and chief executive at Instant Brands. “This combination will allow us to better service our retail customers to meet their evolving needs and capitalize on exciting new demographic and market opportunities.”
Corelle Brands owns and manufacturers other well known brands of kitchenware including Pyrex and CorningWare. The deal has been announced as a “merger” of Instant Brands with Corelle, as opposed to an acquisition. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Corelle’s chief executive will become the chief executive of the merged company. Instant Brands founder Wang will become the company’s “chief innovative officer.”
Instant Pot has become a smash success with home cooks looking to make fast easy meals.
Wang and two partners poured more than $300,000 into product development for the device. A majority of the design was done at his Kanata home.
Wang added a series of sensors, microprocessors and programs to his test model, and found a manufacturer in China to build his machine, which could slow cook, pressure cook, and sauté. It also included a burn-protection mechanism — thanks to a heat sensor at the bottom of the cooking pot — to prevent dishes from being ruined.
He tested recipes with his family and turned to computer science to come up with a name. After writing a program that matched synonyms for “fast” with synonyms for “cooker,” Wang arrived on Instant Pot. Luckily, the domain name was still available.
The sleek, cylindrical pot debuted in August 2010, but it was not an instant success. As part of his initial sales plan, Wang shopped his new device to specialty food and small appliance stores in an attempt to break into the marketplace. He was wagering that his product could catch on by word of mouth if he focused on design and customer support. “The result was not good at all,” he says.
Wang remembers driving five units to Montreal, and returning hours later, thinking: “This won’t work: This is not the way to sustain a company.”
Then came Amazon. It costs just $40 a month to start selling on the world’s largest web retailer, and soon after selling his first pot on the site, Wang realized it was the perfect marketplace for Instant Pot. By 2016, more than 300,000 Instant Pots were sold during a single, 36-hour period on the discount-sales Amazon Prime Day, according to published accounts.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/loca...-merger-with-kitchenware-giant-corelle-brands
Vito Pilieci
Updated: March 4, 2019
Share Adjust Comment Print
Ottawa’s Instant Brands Inc., maker of the popular Instant Pot, has agreed to a deal that will see it join houseware giant Corelle Brands LLC.
Instant Brands, which is headquartered in Kanata and has four factories in China making its Instant Pot kitchen appliance, announced the news Monday morning, saying the agreement will help it expand globally at a much faster pace.
“We are thrilled to partner with a global leader in Corelle Brands as we look to embark on our next chapter of strategic growth and expansion,” said Robert Wang, founder and chief executive at Instant Brands. “This combination will allow us to better service our retail customers to meet their evolving needs and capitalize on exciting new demographic and market opportunities.”
Corelle Brands owns and manufacturers other well known brands of kitchenware including Pyrex and CorningWare. The deal has been announced as a “merger” of Instant Brands with Corelle, as opposed to an acquisition. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Corelle’s chief executive will become the chief executive of the merged company. Instant Brands founder Wang will become the company’s “chief innovative officer.”
Instant Pot has become a smash success with home cooks looking to make fast easy meals.
Wang and two partners poured more than $300,000 into product development for the device. A majority of the design was done at his Kanata home.
Wang added a series of sensors, microprocessors and programs to his test model, and found a manufacturer in China to build his machine, which could slow cook, pressure cook, and sauté. It also included a burn-protection mechanism — thanks to a heat sensor at the bottom of the cooking pot — to prevent dishes from being ruined.
He tested recipes with his family and turned to computer science to come up with a name. After writing a program that matched synonyms for “fast” with synonyms for “cooker,” Wang arrived on Instant Pot. Luckily, the domain name was still available.
The sleek, cylindrical pot debuted in August 2010, but it was not an instant success. As part of his initial sales plan, Wang shopped his new device to specialty food and small appliance stores in an attempt to break into the marketplace. He was wagering that his product could catch on by word of mouth if he focused on design and customer support. “The result was not good at all,” he says.
Wang remembers driving five units to Montreal, and returning hours later, thinking: “This won’t work: This is not the way to sustain a company.”
Then came Amazon. It costs just $40 a month to start selling on the world’s largest web retailer, and soon after selling his first pot on the site, Wang realized it was the perfect marketplace for Instant Pot. By 2016, more than 300,000 Instant Pots were sold during a single, 36-hour period on the discount-sales Amazon Prime Day, according to published accounts.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/loca...-merger-with-kitchenware-giant-corelle-brands
