Fedders 🇺🇸

Fedders is the story of a body shop in Buffalo that became “the king of the window unit.” Theodore C. Fedders opened the workshop in 1896 to make milk cans and kerosene tanks; soon it specialized in automobile radiators for Pierce-Arrow or Thomas (the company claims that a Thomas Flyer with a Fedders radiator won the New York‑Paris race in 1908). It went public in 1926 and in 1945 the family sold control to Frank J. Quigan, a maker of bag frames from Queens, whose executive Salvatore Giordano became president. As Fedders‑Quigan, the company entered room air‑conditioning head‑on in 1946‑47.

The success was total. In 1950 it billed $33.6 million with 3,000 employees; in 1955 it sold 120,000 units under its own brand, more than any competitor, in addition to manufacturing for Whirlpool‑Seeger and Crosley; in 1956 it was sold in almost 15,000 stores and its incentives to distributors —paid trips to Florida, Paris or Israel— became legendary. Giordano assumed the presidency in 1952, the name was shortened to Fedders Corporation in 1958 and in 1966 it opened its large factory and headquarters in Edison (New Jersey). With more than 50 competitors, it diversified: bought Norge from Borg‑Warner in 1968 (about 45 million), Climatrol in 1970 and, after a record $346 million in sales in 1971, in 1976 it acquired Airtemp, Chrysler’s division, for 58.5 million.

The 1973 oil crisis sank the business: losses in 1974 and 1975, a seven‑month‑and‑a‑half strike at Edison, the sale of Norge to Magic Chef for only 13.3 million in 1979 — its Effingham (Illinois) plant was converted to window units — and nine years in the red until a negative net equity of 42.8 million in 1982. It survived by selling central air conditioning and the Edison complex and focusing on its core: window units in Effingham and Rotorex rotary compressors in Frederick (Maryland), which since 1976 replaced the Tecumseh. A second golden age arrived: a 16 % market share in 1986, the 1988 purchase of General Electric’s plant in Columbia (Tennessee) — the factory of the “Carry Cool” plastic‑case units — record sales of 367.6 million and a market share close to 30 % in 1989, and the acquisition of Emerson Quiet Kool in 1991 for 56 million.

With Salvatore Giordano Jr. at the helm since 1988 and his son Michael since 1996, Fedders looked to Asia: Fedders Asia in 1994, joint venture in Ningbo in 1995, a record of 409.8 million in 2000 and a license to manufacture Maytag appliances in 2001. But that same year it moved almost all production from Illinois, Tennessee and Maryland to China, and cool summers and a heavy debt did the rest: on August 22, 2007 the U.S. parent filed for Chapter 11 and on March 31, 2008 the Wilmington court approved the sale of the Fedders, Airtemp and Emerson Quiet Kool brands to the Airwell group, of the Israeli Elco Holdings, for about 13.25 million dollars against more than 275 million in debts.

The name didn’t die out completely: the Giordano family revived it as Fedders USA, and in Argentina the brand was manufactured for years in Tierra del Fuego by Aires del Sur, an Israeli‑capital company that also made Electra. And a juicy detail for the Spanish enthusiast: in the antitrust lawsuit Chrysler filed in 1977 over the sale of Airtemp, alongside Fedders International, the Madrid‑based Interclisa S.A. appeared as a defendant, the company Carrier would buy in 1986.

In Spain

Fedders, the New York manufacturer that in the 60s boasted of being “the best‑selling air conditioner in the world,” was one of the three brands that a Spanish technician in 1972 remembered as the only ones on the market, alongside Crolls and Carrier. It had no factory in Spain: it was an import with its own campaign and a general agent with offices in the most modern building in Madrid at the time. Its ads appear in Spanish magazines at least between 1966 and 1970 — there are pages from 1966 on the back of a Terlenka ad, from 1967, from June and July 1969 and from 1970 — and they are consumer advertising, not engineering: “Don’t suffer the heat,” “When it comes to conditioning, treat with Fedders,” and the most eloquent, “My success? Fedders efficiency… that renewed my business,” where a bar owner says that “during those oppressive summer days, when sales fell, Fedders attracted customers.”

That last advertisement gives the data that matter to the enthusiast: “the widest range of models from 11.990 ptas.”, and the agent: “Theo. H. Davies Ibérica, S.A., general agents for Spain and Portugal”, with offices in the Torre de Madrid (4th floor, No. 8) and “exhibition and sales” at San Leonardo 6, Madrid‑8. Theo H. Davies & Co. was one of the five major trading houses of Hawaii, founded in Liverpool in 1845, with import subsidiaries around the world; its Iberian branch was the gateway for Fedders in Spain. The units were the clear‑sheet window models with a circular grille and the four‑seasons emblem seen in the photos.

The brand disappeared from the Spanish market with the generalization of the national and Japanese ones, but its memory persists: the technical services in Mallorca still advertise repairs of Fedders and veteran technicians mention it among those they dismantled by the hundreds.

In todocoleccion there are at least ten Spanish advertising sheets from Fedders: “Publicidad T 1966. Anuncio Fedders acondicionador de aire” (with Terlenka on the reverse), “Hoja publicitaria de acondicionador de aire Fedders 1967” with the headline “Cuando de acondicionamiento se trata, trate con Fedders” and a woman setting the table next to a window unit, two ads from June and July 1969, a sheet from 1970, the 60s “No pase calor”, and the “¿Mi éxito? Eficacia Fedders... que renovó mi negocio”, with the drawing of a party in a venue and the caption “Fedders, el acondicionador de aire de mayor venta en el mundo. La más amplia gama de modelos desde 11.990 ptas. Theo. H. Davies Ibérica, S.A., agentes generales para España y Portugal. Oficinas: Torre de Madrid, planta 4ª nº 8, Madrid-13. Exposición y ventas: San Leonardo 6, Madrid-8”.

The 2009 forum testimony (“in ’72 in Spain there were only the brands Crolls, Carrier, Fedders and a few others”) and the other technician’s reply (“I have taken apart many of the brands you mention, Crolls, Carrier, Fedders”) confirm their actual implementation, not just advertising. The price comparison is revealing: 11.990 pesetas for the cheapest Fedders versus 13.975 for the 1969 Westinghouse Custom and 15.000 for the 1973 Garza.

Pending verification

The anecdote about the 1908 Thomas Flyer comes only from the Fedders USA corporate website; and the exact nature of the link between Fedders and Interclisa (license, participation or distribution).

History machine-translated from Spanish. Can you improve it? Write to us.