Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The giant American cookware and bakeware supplier Regal Ware is getting out of the US retail market.
The privately-owned company, which last year celebrated 100 years of manufacturing in the US, will instead concentrate on its direct-to-consumer operations, which it says have been “a cornerstone of the company since its founding”.
Speaking to HomeWorld Business, the company’s president, Jeff Reigle, said: “The retail business was not profitable and was diverting resources from the other part of our business.”
Regal Ware has manufacturing facilities in West Bend and Kewaskum, Wisconsin, where it produces stainless steel cookware and bakeware, multi-ply cookware and cast aluminum cookware under brands that include American Kitchen and Unity.
It claims to be the only US manufacturer capable of producing such a diverse range of constructions.
This is not the first time Regal Ware has turned its back on retail: in 1999 it exited the entry-level retail cookware market, again to focus its efforts on cookware via direct sales.
The company re-entered the retail market in 2010 with an emphasis on mid- to high-end retail cookware.
