The Amana Corporation is an American brand of household appliances. It was founded in 1934 by George Foerstner as the Electrical Equipment Co. in Middle Amana, Iowa, to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers. The business was later owned by the Amana Society and became known as Amana Refrigeration, Inc.[2] It is now owned by the Whirlpool Corporation.[3] Today, the Amana brand is marketed as the economy brand of Whirlpool Corporation, slotting below Whirlpool in the lineup. Its closest competitor in the United States is the Hotpoint brand owned by GE Appliances/Haier.
History
The predecessors of the Amana Corporation emerged from the reform that the communistic Amana Colonies underwent in the early 1930s. George C. Foerstner, a traveling salesman for the Amana woolen mill, saw that the 1933 repeal of Prohibition would lead to a need for beverage coolers.