Metal Ware history

In 1928, Metal Ware introduced a new style of sandwich toaster with an expandable hinge and was designed to toast both sides of an assembled sandwich at the same time as well as making French toast and grilling bacon.

In December, 1931, Elmer Drumm, who had worked at the Mirro Aluminum Company, along with his brother Charles Drumm, Elmer Bleser, and Victor C. Trastek purchased Metal Ware.

In 1936 the Empire line of toy trains was spun off into a separate business named Empire Products Company.

As with many companies at the time, they experienced the effects of the growth of labor unions with the American Federation of Labor announcing that they completely unionized the employees of the Metal Ware Corporation in 1937.

In April 1942, The Metal Ware Corporation announced that it would have contracts for arms production.

In April 1945, because of continued war production, the company began construction of a 2500 s.f. addition to their plant.

In 1946, it was reported that The Metal Ware Corporation had been producing electric lanterns for soldiers and electrical appliances for naval ships.

In 1950, The Metal Ware Corporation bought the assets of the Herah Electric Specialty company in Milwaukee and moved the dies, patterns and materials inventory to its Two Rivers plant.

At the end of 1964, the company reported that sales were up from previous years and had a record year for coffee makers.

Continued strong growth for the company was evidenced by construction of a 1400 s.f. office space addition to their main building in 1965.

A labor strike by the Aluminum Workers International Union was started on April 2, 1968, over an labor contract that expired On December 31.

By 1973 an additional office space expansion added another 3200 s.f.

New products introduced in 1977 included the Little Fry mini deep fryer and the Empire Travl-Mate automatic coffee maker kit.

In 1981, Metal ware Corporation Purchased the NESCO trade name for roaster ovens along with all dies, tooling, equipment, and finished goods inventory from the previous owners.

A major boost to the company began in 1991 when the QVC television shopping channel began selling their NESCO roasters on national basis.

In 1996, Metal Ware acquired the American Harvest brand of dehydrators, merging the line into the NESCO brand.

By 1997 one million units had shipped.