Corelle Brands

Corelle Brands, LLC is an American kitchenware products maker and distributor based in Downers Grove, Illinois.

The business began as the Corning Consumer Products Company, a division of Corning Incorporated. After being spun off in 1998 the company was called World Kitchen from 2000 to 2018, before adopting its current name. The company has been owned by Anchor Hocking since 2024.

History

Corning Incorporated

The company began as an unincorporated consumer products division of Corning, Inc. in 1915 with the invention of heat-resistant glass bakeware sold under the Pyrex brand. It was incorporated as the Corning Consumer Products Company (CCPC) in the early 1990s as part of a larger reorganization and Corning contributed or licensed to the company substantially all of its assets used in the existing consumer division.

In November 1994, Corning and the CCPC sold its European, Russian, Middle Eastern and African consumer products businesses to Newell. A major competitor at the time, they would serve as the exclusive distributor for a number of the company’s products in those regions. Corning spun-off CCPC in 1998 and sold the division to Borden.

Brands

Current

Corelle Brands manufactures products under names such as:

Corelle
Corningware
Pyrex
Visions
Chicago Cutlery

Past

On June 1, 2004, WKI Holding Company, Inc., which operates principally through its subsidiary World Kitchen, Inc., announced that it had completed the sale of OXO International to Helen of Troy Limited for over $273 million in cash.[21]

In 2018, Corelle Brands discontinued production of Revere Ware and Bakers Secret.

Visions

Visions is a transparent cookware line created by Corning France in the late 1970s. In 1983, it was introduced in the US and became the number one selling cookware set for a number of years. Visions is made of a transparent version of Pyroceram glass-ceramic, occasionally referred to as Calexium. However, its lids have typically been made out of Pyrex (both Borosilicate and Soda-lime glass) in the US and Asia. Originally introduced in an amber color, a cranberry tinted version was available from 1992 until 2004. A white variation was available primarily in Europe as "White Vision" and in the US in limited supply under the name "Pyromax". Visions was temporarily unavailable in the United States from 2004 until 2006 but has otherwise been produced non-stop for nearly 40 years.

Chicago Cutlery

In 1930 Chicago Cutlery was incorporated by Alfred Paulson. Initially it focused on knife conditioning before making its main business manufacture of kitchen cutlery. Chicago Cutlery was a subsidiary brand of Corelle Brands.[22]

CorningWare

Originally introduced in 1958, Corning Ware was made in the US from a glass-ceramic material called Pyroceram which was able to withstand temperatures as high as 850 °C. Due to its high thermal shock resistance, Corning Ware could be used to store food in a freezer and then taken directly to a stove, placed under a broiler or in an oven (both conventional and microwave). Lids have typically been made out of Pyrex (both Borosilicate and Soda-lime glass) though some versions were also created out of Pyroceram. It was discontinued in 2003, replaced by a stoneware line of bakeware made in China under the same name. In December 2008, the company released CorningWare StoveTop. It reintroduced the original Pyroceram product, this time made in France alongside Visions, and made available for purchase through its outlet stores and retail website.

The factory in France, which produces both CorningWare StoveTop and Visions, is one of the few still capable of producing glass-ceramic products.

EKCO

In 1888, Edward Katzinger founded the Edward Katzinger Company in Chicago to manufacture baking pans.[23] In 1945, the company went public under the new name EKCO Products Company.[24] Throughout its history, the company grew both organically and with acquisitions[25] until it was the largest non-electric housewares manufacturer in the US by the mid-1960s.[26] The company was sold to the conglomerate American Home Products (AHP) in 1965.[23][25] AHP later split its housewares division into Ekco Products Inc., Ekco Housewares Co., and The Prestige Group Limited; Ekco Housewares was sold to the investment firm Gibbons, Green, Van Amerongen in 1984.[24]

type	Private
industry	Kitchenware
founded	1991
location	Downers Grove, IL, USA
key people	Ben Gadbois, president and chief executive officer
num employees	3,000 (2013)
owner	Anchor Hocking
homepage	corellebrands.com

History

Corning Incorporated

World Kitchen

Instant Brands

Anchor Hocking

Domestic and international markets