Pampered Chef Explained

Pampered Chef
Type:Subsidiary
Area Served:United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, France
Key People:Andrew Treanor (CEO)
Doris Christopher
(chairman & founder)
Industry:Kitchen and Food products
Owner:Berkshire Hathaway
Foundation:River Forest, IL
Location City:Addison Township, DuPage County, Illinois
Location Country:United States

Pampered Chef is a multinational multi-level marketing company that offers a line of kitchen tools, food products, and cookbooks for preparing food in the home. They also offer some products to help transport some of their products and gardening tools.[1]

It has a worldwide direct sales force of about 35,000 in addition to 400 corporate staff.[2] The company is headquartered in Addison, Illinois, and operates in five countries: the United States, Germany, Canada, Austria, and France.

History

Doris Christopher founded Pampered Chef in 1980 in the basement of her suburban Chicago home. Christopher came up with a party plan to offer kitchen tools directly to consumers through in-home cooking demonstrations, a concept first popularized by Tupperware. The company expanded to Canada in 1996, the UK in 1999, Germany in 2000, Austria in 2019, and France in 2020.[3] [4]

The company was acquired in 2002 by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway corporation.[5] On October 30, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway appointed long time advisor Tracy Britt Cool to the position of CEO.[6] According to Direct Selling News, "the company’s revenue has fallen from $320 million in 2015 to $280 million in 2018."[7] In March 2020, the company's COO, Andrew Treanor, took over on the role of CEO.[8]

The company closed its UK business, and wound down UK operations as of December 31, 2015.[9] [10]

Products

In 1990, Pampered Chef released a product known as the Valtrompia bread tube. The product is a metal tube in which refrigerated bread dough can be baked into a narrow, scalloped-edge loaf.[11] As of the late 1990s, the product is available in five shapes—flower, square, heart, scalloped, and star. The bread is baked with the tube placed upright in the oven, allowing the bread to rise vertically along the tube.[12]

Lawsuit

In April 2023, Pampered Chef was sued for alleged data sharing and sharing video viewing history from people visiting the company website with Google and Facebook.[13] In June 2023, Pampered Chef settled the lawsuit claiming they did share video viewing history of users.[14]

Notes and References

  1. Gregory Karp, "The fine line between legitimate businesses and pyramid schemes", Chicago Tribune, February 10, 2013
  2. Web site: Pampered Chef Company Facts. Pampered Chef. March 26, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160408214203/https://www.pamperedchef.com/company-facts. April 8, 2016. live.
  3. Web site: Pampered Chef Enters Austria Market. Pampered Chef. September 23, 2019.
  4. Web site: Chen. I-chun. Pampered Chef brings its kitchenware to France. Chicago Business Journal.
  5. Web site: Berkshire Hathaway to acquire The Pampered Chef. Berkshire Hathaway. September 23, 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20021014201050/http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/sep2302.html. October 14, 2002. live.
  6. Noah Buhayar, "Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit", Bloomberg, October 30, 2014
  7. Web site: Buffett protégé Tracy Britt Cool leaving Berkshire Hathaway. Kosman. Josh. September 19, 2019. New York Post. en. April 3, 2020.
  8. Web site: Tracy Britt Cool to Leave Berkshire Hathaway, Pampered Chef To Start New Venture.. September 19, 2019.
  9. Web site: Williams . Tina . 2015-09-17 . Pampered Chef Begins Shutting Down Facilities - Closure Is Surprising To Affiliates . 2024-06-18 . Direct Selling Facts, Figures and News . en-US.
  10. Web site: Pampered Chef winding down UK operations. PamperedChef. September 11, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150920204516/http://www.pamperedchef.co.uk/join_us/business-announcement.html. September 20, 2015. live.
  11. Web site: McKinley . Kay . August 8, 1990 . Stocking up for fun: Party demonstrations give cooks a chance to buy equipment to ease meal preparation . August 30, 2022 . . . ProQuest.
  12. Web site: Evans . Dayna . April 8, 2021 . A Bread Tube Will Cure the Mundanity of Regular Bread-Baking . August 30, 2022 . Eater . en.
  13. Web site: Pampered Chef Sued Over Video Data Sharing with Google, Meta . 2024-03-26 . news.bloomberglaw.com . en.
  14. Web site: Pampered Chef Agrees to Settle Suit Over Sharing of Video Info . 2024-03-26 . news.bloomberglaw.com . en.