BUSINESS TRIVIA 1

Whirlpool–Quick Facts


* 1911: Louis Upton founded the Upton Machine Company in this year to produce motor-driven
wringer washers.
* 1929: Upton Machine Company merged with
Nineteen Hundred Washer Company of New York
1948: First ‘Whirlpool’ brand automatic washer with
dual distribution was introduced.
* 1957: The company was rechristened as ‘The
Whirlpool Corporation.’
*: The Elisha Gray II Research & Engineering
Center was set up.
* 1987: Whirlpool tied-up with Sundaram Clayton Ltd. of India to form TVS Whirlpool Ltd.
* Whirlpool acquired majority of stake in the TVS Whirlpool Ltd
*: Whirlpool Washing Machines Ltd. and Kelvinator India Ltd. merged together to form
Whirlpool of India Ltd.
* 2006: Whirlpool Corporation acquires Maytag and become the Worlds largest white goods
company.
* Buena Vista is the in-house movie distribution company of Disney.
* State Express 555 is a brand name of cigarette that originated from the name of the train State
Empire Express in which Albert Levy–founder of the Ardath Tobacco Company used to travel.
He once noticed that the engine number was 999. This prompted him to choose similar three
number names for his State Express Cigarettes. He thus registered ‘111’, ‘222’, …., ‘999’ of which
555 became the most famous.
* Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company (3M) was set up to mine Corundum on the shore
of Lake Superior in Minnesota. Sandpaper was one of its first products
* Sony Corporation’s logo is made up of exactly 42 dots
* Subaru Automobiles was founded by Fuji Heavy Industries.
* Casio was established in April 1946 by Tadao Kashio, an engineer specializing in fabrication
technology. Kashio’s first major product was the yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that would hold a
cigarette, allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also leaving the wearer's
hands free. Japan was impoverished immediately following World War II so cigarettes were
valuable, and the invention was a success.
* El Al Israel Airlines–Israel’s largest airline and flag carrier–does not initiate flights on Shabbat,
despite the financial losses that this entails, and schedules are arranged so that flights arrive before
the sundown on the eve of Shabbat.

* PUF in Godrej PUF refrigerators stands for Polyurethane foam.

* Minolta, which marketed “Cherry Hand Camera”–Japan's first brand name camera,
announced withdrawal of camera business and photo business in 2006

* Yamaha is the world’s largest maker of digital musical instruments. Yamaha’s international slogan is
“Creating ‘Kando’ Together”. The Japanese word ‘kando’ is that emotional connection that people
feel when substance and style come together and create music, or a product that is not just good—
it’s magical. All Access is the backstage guide to the world of Yamaha.

* C K Ranganathan of CavinKare along with Jaishree Raveendran and Thankavel are the founder
members of NGO Ability Foundation

* Mumbai-based K Raheja Group is the promoter of retail chain Shoppers’ Stop and its other retail
formats, including Home Stop, Crossword, Stop & Go (airport retail) and Brio

* Yamaha Motor Corp (YMC) currently sells the 100-cc ‘Crux’ and 106-cc ‘Alba’, apart from 125-cc
‘Gladiator’ in India.

* 99 Cents Only Stores is a price-point retailer chain in the United States. It mostly sells products
with prices of 99 cents. Items cheaper than 99 cents are sold in divisors of 99 cents (i.e., 2 for 99
cents, 6 for 99 cents). David Gold founded the store in 1982.

* Penguin Portfolio, Penguin’s sub-brand or imprint formed in 2006 to publish business books.

* ‘The Case of the Bonsai Manager’ (by Tata Sons Director R Gopalakrishnan), has sold over
10,000 copies within five months of its release.

* Other recent titles include Rama Bijapurkar’s “We are Like That Only” and V Raghunathan’s
“Games Indians Play”.

* De Beers 4Cs of diamond appreciation are–Carrat, Cut, Clarity and Colour

* November 2006, Rajshri released the movie Vivah on its website, Rajshri.com, the same day it
hit theaters.

Izhevsk Mechanical Works or Izhmash is
a weapons manufacturer based in Izhevsk,
founded in 1807 at the decree of Tsar
Alexander I. Izhevsk is the site where
Mikhail Kalashnikov designed his famous
AK-47 assault rifle. In addition to the
Kalashnikov series of assault rifles, Izhmash
also makes cannons, missiles, guided shells
and even goods such as motorcycles and
cars.

* Ravi Melwani (of Kids Kemp fame) launched Kemperor, billed as the world's largest men's
apparel and accessories store.
* “Boldness changes everything” is the corporate identity of ArcelorMittal.
* KK Jajodia is the promoter of Assam Company Limited (ACL). ACL is the first tea plantation
company in India to have started in North East India in 1839. ACL is the first company to explore oil in Assam in the year 1889.
* ACL is the only non-government company that has been exploring oil in north east India. ACL is the first tea company in the world (established 1839) set up by a deed of the British Parliament.
ACL is the first company to be awarded the Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1845. ACL is also
famous for its Camellia Tea Bars.
* P&G and UNICEF launched Project Poshan to combat malnutrition in India. India has 40% of the
world’s malnourished children. P&G raised Rs. 50 lakhs by contributing Re. 1/- from sales of large size packs of Ariel, Whisper, Head & Shoulders and Pantene

* A five horse power electric motor was Hitachi’s first product while an electric attachment plug
was the first product of Matsushita

* Sears, Roebuck and Co. is an American chain of department stores, founded by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. The Sears, Roebuck catalog was sometimes referred to as “the Consumers’ Bible”. The Christmas Catalog was known as the “Wish Book”

* used a Japanese woofer technology called Bazooka in its TVs. The bazooka, in
Japanese language, is a man-portable anti-armor rocket launcher, made famous during World
War II, where it was one of the primary infantry anti-tank weapons used by the United States Armed Forces.

* United Phosphorus was incorporated as Vishwanath Commercials in 1985.

* Bridge is the logo of the Sunfeast Open

* Mahesh Bhupati is the MD of the sports promotion firm Globo Sports

* Feel the Hyatt Touch” is the punch line of Hyatt

* Anupam Kher is the brand ambassador for pizza brand Dominos.

* According to the European Commission only cheese produced in Greece can use the trademark
feta

* “Dressing the World” is the baseline of Digjam