Growth
Sunbeam acquired Rain King Sprinkler Company producing a popular lawn sprinkler line of the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, Sunbeam continued to expand outside of Chicago. In 1960, it acquired John Oster Manufacturing Company, best known for its Osterizer blenders.[9] By the end of the 1970s, as the leading American manufacturer of small appliances, Sunbeam enjoyed about $1.3 billion in annual sales and employed nearly 30,000 people worldwide. In 1981, after Sunbeam was bought by Allegheny International Inc. of Pittsburgh, most of the Chicago-area factories were closed and the headquarters moved to downtown Pittsburgh. Under Allegheny International's ownership, Sunbeam became the world's largest maker of small appliances through much of the 1980s. Allegheny International moved its headquarters into a 32-floor signature skyscraper in Pittsburgh.[10] During this time, the companies Allegheny controlled included John Zink Company (manufactured air pollution control devices) and Hanson Scale (manufactured bathroom scales and other balance machines).[11]
Allegheny's four principal divisions, including Sunbeam, went into decline during the late-1980s. Because Sunbeam-Oster was one of the most important divisions, responsible for nearly half of all sales, stockholders became very concerned about the leadership of the company. In 1986, stockholders accused the chairman and CEO, Robert Buckley, of misappropriating funds.[12][13] Buckley's successor, Oliver Travers, downsized the company considerably and, by 1988, it was essentially just Sunbeam and Oster. The decline continued, worsened by the stock market crash of October 1987, and Allegheny filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[14] In the fall of 1989, an investment group called Japonica Partners[15] purchased the remains of Allegheny for $250 million ($0 million today) in a hostile takeover.[16] The company was renamed Sunbeam-Oster Company, Inc. The business was then divided into four divisions: Outdoor Products, Household Products, Specialty Products, and International Sales. The company headquarters were moved again, from Pittsburgh to Providence, Rhode Island, and then, finally, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[17] By late 1991, Sunbeam-Oster's sales had increased by seven percent, enabling it to make the Fortune 500 list.
