The Cuisinart Deluxe Pasta Maker debuted at the Gourmet Products Show. With a three-pound capacity and heavy-duty induction motor, the machine made a lot of pasta at once–and quickly hamilton beach smoothie blender (in about 20 minutes). The pasta maker directly answered consumers requests for kitchen appliances that supported more health-conscious lifestyles and more consumers staying at home.
The new designs were larger and more expensive than earlier models and proved to be the company’s testament to product diversity. These models featured more powerful motors, more blades, more attachments, and higher prices. Cuisinart also excited the high-end appliance sector with hand-mixers and toasters. In particular, the company introduced a long, extra wide slot toaster in 1996 that was one of eight preferred toasters Good Housekeeping magazine selected from a field of 25. Without its contract to manufacture and distribute Cuisinart’s food processors, Robot-Coupe launched its own model in 1978. In 1988, the Sontheimers sold Cuisinart to a group of investors for $60 million.
At this point in its history, Cuisinart had products in 70 percent of all small appliance categories. To gain acceptance, Sontheimer showed his food processor to James Beard, Julia Child, and other notable culinary experts. Their endorsements&mdash well as favorable articles in Gourmet magazine and the New York Times–likened Sontheimer’s Cuisinart food processor to landmark inventions such as the cotton gin and the steamboat. Cuisinart continued to add to its product line in 1998 with a cordless percolator in the Coffee Bar line and a new electronic hand mixer. The SmartPower CountUp Hand Mixer featured the lowest mixing speeds available and came equipped with a digital timer. Cuisinart has been perfecting the art of great cooking for over 25 years.
If you’re on the go, you’ll never have to skip your morning shake or smoothie again. A Hamilton Beach® Personal Blender lets you mix a quick, tasty drink, and then grab and run. Each single-serve blender cup has a no-spill travel lid integrated into the top.
In 1984 and 1985, Cuisinart began promoting culinary education and awareness through cookbooks and other media. Anne Greer’s American Southwest, published by Cuisinart, won the Tastemaker Award presented by the R.T. French Company as the best American cuisine cookbook of 1984. The following year, Cuisinart began a cooking videotape series to enhance the culinary education of consumers. The year 1996 marked Cuisinart’s 25th anniversary in culinary appliances. To commemorate the occasion, the company adopted “Your Kitchen Resource” as a new advertising tag line.
The company also established new accounts with gourmet specialty stores. By 1989, Cuisinart controlled 12 percent of the market, and its revenues fell to about $50 million. Though Cuisinart maintained its image as a high-priced product for serious cooks, consumers more and more perceived its products as too heavy, too complicated, and too expensive in an arena with too much competition. Highly leveraged, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with $43 million in debts and $35 million in assets. In December the current owners sold the company to Conair Corporation, a national manufacturer of home appliances and personal care products based in Stamford, Connecticut.
Whatever the kitchen convenience, the Cuisinart brand has been equated with quality construction and top-of-the-line pricing. Other well-known kitchen appliance manufacturers–Sunbeam and Hamilton Beach, hamilton beach smoothie blender for example–began to enter the food processor market around 1977. By the end of that year, consumers could choose from more than 30 models of food processors, varying in price from $30 to $400.
The next year, Cuisinart followed the Mini-Mate with the Little Pro, a similar product in the $75 range. Conair renamed the company Cuisinart Corporation and instituted a new marketing program for its products. With more advertising and product demonstrations, the new owners hoped to improve relations between Cuisinart and department stores, as well as become a presence in the bridal market.
Consumers liked–and purchased–competitors’ smaller and cheaper machines. They complained that Cuisinart models were too big and bulky to keep on kitchen counters. Frequently stored in closets, Cuisinart food processors had to be lugged out of hiding, which made their use inconvenient. Six to eight blades often overwhelmed the average cook, who saw uses for maybe one or two blades. In 1972, Sontheimer engineered the redesign of these restaurant food processors for home use.