Presto Products history

By 1908, however, the company had settled into manufacturing 50-gallon retorts, or steam pressure cookers, for the canning industry.

The company installed an aluminum foundry in 1915 for the specific purpose of manufacturing large-size pressure canners for home use.

The business rapidly grew when the United States Department of Agriculture determined in 1917 that pressure canning was the only safe method for canning low acid foods without the risk of food poisoning.

George Saliba was in his late twenties, graduating from M.I.T. in 1927 with a degree in electrical engineering.

To more closely identify with the now famous brand, in 1929 the company name changed to National Pressure Cooker Company.

By 1930, annual net income had surpassed $1 million on revenues of more than $12 million.

He was able to escape a year or two later and returned to New York where he married my mother in 1931 and began his exploits at Presto Recording.

PRESTO was one of three companies to have developed versions of this disc - the others were in France and England - and the PRESTO version was introduced to the US in the fall of 1934, after several years of experimentation. (1)

By 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, the National Pressure Cooking Co. was selling 60,000 pressure cookers annually, mostly for home canning by farm households.

The "PRESTO DISC" quickly became the industry standard, and by 1936 PRESTO recording equipment was being installed in stations nationwide.

The PRESTO "JR", shown in 1937, progressed to the K10 of the 60's, and the basic appearance is the same.

The “Presto” Pressure Cooker was introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Jerome Wiesner joined the Library of Congress in the early 1940's.

Consumer acceptance of the Presto® Pressure Cooker was so great, that by the end of 1941, it ranked among the largest producers of housewares dollar volume in leading stores throughout the country.

Everett R. Hamilton, then president and majority owner of the company, managed to land a $3 million government contract to make artillery fuses, but Hamilton died of a heart attack in February 1942, before the conversion to defense work could be completed.

In 1946, the National Pressure Cooker Co. also formed a subsidiary, the Martin Motors Division, to manufacture outboard motors developed by George W. Martin, a former professional outboard-racing champion.

The 90A amplifier/mixer, introduced in 1947 , was perhaps the first commercially manufactured recording mixer.

In 1948, Outboard, Marine and Manufacturing introduced the first outboard motor with a separate fuel tank and a shift lever that allowed the operator to select forward, reverse, or neutral.

In 1949, the company also introduced its first electric appliance, a steam iron with the Presto brand name that could use tap water instead of distilled water.

As the company began introducing more consumer products under the Presto brand name, including an automatic coffee maker, the stockholders voted at the 1953 annual meeting to change the corporate name to National Presto Industries, Inc.

He married into the Phillips family, became president of the company in 1954, and later its chairman.

In 1955, National Presto expanded its defense work to include airplane components for the United States Air Force.

Moreover, National Presto's remaining defense workers went out on strike for 60 days in the summer of 1958.

In 1959, the Army Ordnance Corps abruptly cancelled its contract with National Presto for artillery shells.

National Presto shut down its defense operations in Eau Claire in 1960 but contracted with the government to maintain the manufacturing equipment in a state of semi-readiness.

In 1963 the Presto name was dropped, and Bogen shown as a subsidiary.

The tide would soon turn again as the company resumed production of artillery shells in 1964, as United States ground troops were being sent to Vietnam.

The 1965 listing for Bogen drops the recording equipment in their product mix.

On March 3, 1969, National Presto Industries, Inc. was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol NPK. It was a prestigious advancement in terms of company recognition and a mark of the integrity of its products and finances.

A second manufacturing plant for consumer products was built in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1971.

D. By 1972 they reached $8 Million Dollars in sales.

At the height of United States involvement in Southeast Asia, employment at the defense plant in Eau Claire reached 3,000, a figure that fell off dramatically after the United States withdrew from Vietnam in 1973.

In 1974 the company produced the PrestoBurger, an electric hamburger cooker that broiled a single patty of meat in less than three minutes.

E. By 1975 the firm grew to 500 employees.

The company was quick to follow with the 1976 introduction of a new concept in deep fryers.

In 1977, Presto Lifts began producing a full line of manually propelled lifts and stackers under the brand name of Presto.

H. In 1978 the firm was bought by Coca Cola, who considered Presto as one of the finest firms under their control.

J. In the 1980‟s the firm grew their product line beyond plastic bags and plastic film products.

I. With a change in corporate direction Coca Cola chose to sell the firm n 1985.

In 1988, National Presto introduced the SaladShooter, an electric slicer/shredder.

The SaladShooter® met with such overwhelming success that its name quickly became a household word throughout the country and led to the successful introduction of a larger, more powerful model, the Professional SaladShooter® electric slicer/shredder in 1990.

In 1991, National Presto introduced the Tater Twister potato peeler.

In 1992, a federal district court jury found Black & Decker guilty of infringing on National Presto's patent and awarded the company $2.35 million in damages.

Indeed, National Presto was becoming a formidable name in the industry; also in 1993, the Dazey Corp. agreed to withdraw from the deep-fryer market after being sued by National Presto.

In the company’s 1994 annual report, management noted: “Hopefully, this Company’s competitors are now convinced that it will not brook copying, and will aggressively seek injunctive and/or damages relief when infringements occur.”

In 1995, the decision went to the United States Court of Appeals, where justices upheld the lower court’s finding of patent infringement.

1996 - Realignment of marketing and sales with concentration on category management and customer service.

By 1997, Cohen had been with National Presto for 53 years, starting out as a service manager.

1998 - FRESH-LOCK® Zipper brand name introduced as replacement for Fresh-Trak® Zipper.

Don Hoeschen, vice president of sales for National Presto, noted in a 1999 article for HFN, a trade journal for small appliance manufactures, that buyers of pressure cookers were interested in more user-friendly features.

“Stock of Eau Claire, Wis., Appliance Maker Falls after Wal-Mart Cuts Orders,” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 19, 2000.

Presto did find some good news in 2001.

The ProFry™ immersion element deep fryer was introduced for the 2002 holiday season.

A Jim worked at Presto Products for 42 years, retiring in 2003.

In 2005, National Presto celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Since March of 2008 Presto has been owned by Rank Group Limited, a privately held investment company in New Zealand.

Presto entered the dehydrator market in 2012 with a contemporary line of Dehydro™ food dehydrators that were unique to the industry.

Officers for the next calendar year shall be elected by the Board of Directors at it’s first meeting of the 2014 calendar year.

In 2016 Presto Lifts acquired ECOA Industrial Products.

A novel solution to an age-old problem attracted media attention to National Presto in 2017 with the launch of its 6- and 8-quart traveling slow cooker line.

Despite the problems caused by a worldwide pandemic in 2020, several innovative new products were introduced.

© 2021 Presto Products, a business unit of Reynolds Consumer Products