1917-2011 , 1917

(activity), (foundation)

"Superior Electrics is one of Canada’s last independent manufacturers of small appliances. Over the past fifty years, it has made products by many stellar Canadian designers including Sid Bersudsky, Lawrie McIntosh and currently Glenn Moffatt. It is the last company to produce the chrome dome kettle in North America.

Founded in 1917 by three Pembroke businessmen (within a semi-finished bankrupt hotel), the company originally specialized in electric heaters for barns. After the war, Superior Electrics produced an array of items such as electric irons, fans and compact stoves. In 1972 it was briefly owned by the Japanese consumer electronics company Magnasonic, which then sold it to its present owner, Harold Shifman.

Superior Electrics entered the electric kettle market in the late seventies, when it acquired the tools and dies from McGraw-Edison Canada, Toronto. Superior moved into plastic manufacturing in 1989, after it purchased the assets of Creative Appliance. Superior subcontracts for the American companies Sunbeam and Toastmaster, which enables it to compete with the multinationals. Currently the electric kettle is its most popular appliance and its largest production run, selling tens of thousands of units annually."

Design in Canada (2004), p. 253

Pembroke, Ontario, Canada