Rowenta is a German brand that offers small household appliances. Since 1988, it has been part of the global French Groupe SEB.
History
Robert Ferdinand August Weintraud (1860–1927) founded "Robert Weintraud GmbH & Co. KG" in 1884, and trademarked the brand name Rowenta, an amalgamation of the founder's full name, in December 1909. His family lived in Offenbach am Main, in Hesse, then German Empire, where also was built the first factory of the company.[1] The headquarters were located exactly off the B43 next to the A661 bridge over the river Main, in the Gewerbegebiet Kaiserlei ("Industrial Park of Kaiserlei", a quarter of Offenbach).
Rowenta was bought by the French Groupe SEB in 1988,[2] so the corporation trades as "Rowenta Werke GmbH" since then, i.e. as the German subsidiary of the French conglomerate, named "Groupe SEB Deutschland". In 1997 the Offenbach factory closed, shifting all the headquarters and the production to that of Erbach im Odenwald