Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is the largest United States home appliance maker. Whirlpool has about 68,000 employess worldwide and manufactures appliances under a variety of brand names listed below.

After aquiring the Maytag Corporation on March 31, 2006, Whirlpool Corporation became the largest home appliance maker in the world.

In North America, Whirlpool Corporation is headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan and manufacturers appliances in the states of Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Whirlpool's seminal product was the clothes washing machine, which in the United States is today manufactured in Clyde, Ohio. The washing machine plant produces about 20,000 top-loading washing machines per day, or a total of about 4.8 million per year. The machines are produced for sale primarily in North America and Australia.

History

Louis, Frederick and Emory Upton founded the Upton Machine Company in 1911 to produce electric, motor-driven wringer washers.

Diversity

Whirlpool received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.

Community Involvement

Whirlpool Corporation is a principal supporter of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization dedicated to building low-cost, affordable housing. Whirlpool donates a clothes washing machine, clothes dryer, refrigerator, and stove to every Habitat for Humanity house.

Whirlpool also sponsored many homes in the Jimmy Carter Work Project in the summer of 2005. In Benton Harbor, 24 new homes were built through Harbor Habitat for Humanity. The JCWP was part of a statewide initiative to provide affordable homes to families in Benton Harbor, Detroit and various other Michigan communities.