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The History of Dirt Devil
The first Royal vacuum cleaners were made by the P.A. Geier Company in 1905.
This makes us one of the world´s oldest vacuum cleaner manufacturing companies.
Mr. Geier started producing his metal cleaners by hand in a backyard garage in
Cleveland, Ohio. Soon the company grew and moved to a four-story building where
it operated two divisions, a cleaner division and a machining division. Besides
vacuum cleaners, the company produced mixers, hair dryers and washing machine
units.
Vacuum cleaners, though, remained the key product, as the company introduced
the industry´s first hand-held vac, the "Royal Prince," in 1937. Royal joined
most manufacturing companies across the country and switched over to military
production during World War II.
Vacuum cleaner shipments remained strong up to 1953 when the P.A. Geier
Company was bought by an investment group, the Walter E. Schott Organization.
The Schotts renamed the company Royal Appliance Manufacturing. However, the new
owners were not wholly committed to the company and decided to dissolve it soon
after its acquisition. Royal was then purchased by a group of employees, headed
by Stan Erbor, in 1954.
In 1981, a small group of investors saw an opportunity to purchase the
company and to bring a fresh sales and marketing strategy. With this new
leadership, our sales grew from just under $5 million in 1981 to approximately
$408 million in 2000.
In 1984, Royal introduced an innovative new product, the Dirt Devil® Hand Vac,
which has grown to become Royal´s signature product and the largest selling
hand-held corded vacuum cleaner in the United States. Since its debut, more than
23 million Dirt Devil Hand Vacs have been sold. This success has opened the door
for many new product introductions under the Dirt Devil brand name.
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
Aristotle
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