ERIC'S EKCO AND OTHER ECHOES SUCH AS ECCO AND ECKO! PART 4 - FINALLY WE GET TO THE ECHOES!
Posted by STEVE M on
So, I hear you say, we've seen the Ekco story right through to the near present day but what else is there to talk about.... well, I will tell you.....
As we learnt a while ago back in Part 1, Ekco started as a company, albeit in a garage in 1922 so what do you think to this advert from 1924 for Ecco?
I wonder if Eric knew about them and also whether or not he cared about the play on his companies name?
There again, did he know what had been going on on the other side of the Atlantic since 1888 with a company making these:-
Despite posting a profit in every year of its existence, dating back to 1889, the Edward Katzinger Company rebranded the company name in 1944 to EKCO to make the brand sound more American - after all, at this time, it was bad to be German.
The move was a success and profits not only stabilised but improved further until the 71yo CEO Arthur Keating surrendered the company to American Home Products in September of 1965, for it to become a division of the massive conglomerate known as the American Home Products Corporation. It was a blow but the $145 million payoff cushion helped markedly.
So there we are, tying up the story of the echoes with both EKCO companies - one each side of the Atlantic ceasing operations within a year of each other.
You will not have to wait for next week's exciting episode because there isn't one - well, not about EKCO anyway.