Pampered Chef
 | |
| Wholly owned subsidiary | |
| Industry | Kitchen and food products |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Addison, Illinois, United States |
Area served | United States, Canada, Germany |
Key people |
Tracy Britt Cool (CEO), Doris Christopher (Chairman, founder) |
| Owner | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Website |
www |
Pampered Chef, Ltd. is a global multi-level marketing company that offers a line of kitchen tools, food products, and cookbooks for preparing food in the home. They also offer some products to help transport some of their products and gardening tools.[1] It has a worldwide direct sales force of about 35,000 in addition to 400 corporate staff.[2] The company is headquartered in Addison, Illinois and operates in three countries: United States, Germany and Canada.
History
Founded in 1980 by Doris Christopher, the company began in the basement of Christopher's home. The company started to sell items to housewives on the party plan, a system in which a homemaker invited her friends over for a social event at which the products were demonstrated and sold, a concept first popularized by Tupperware. The company expanded to Canada in 1996, the UK in 1999, and Germany in 2000.
The company was acquired in 2002 by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway corporation.[3] On October 30, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway appointed long time advisor Tracy Britt Cool to the position of CEO.[4]
The company closed its UK business, and wound down operations as of 31 December 2015.[5]
References
- ↑ Gregory Karp, "The fine line between legitimate businesses and pyramid schemes", Chicago Tribune, 10 February 2013
- ↑ "Pampered Chef Company Facts". Pampered Chef. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
- ↑ "Berkshire Hathaway to acquire The Pampered Chef". Berkshire Hathaway. Retrieved 2002-09-23.
- ↑ Noah Buhayar, "Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit", Bloomberg, 30 October 2014
- ↑ "Pampered Chef winding down UK operations". PamperedChef.
