Hamilton Beach merger is a big deal for small appliances
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by Heather Hayes
for Virginia Business
September 2006

The deal will be complicated, but the rewards will be great, say officials working on the merger of Hamilton Beach/ Proctor-Silex and Applica Inc.
When the dust settles, the combined company, Hamilton Beach Inc., will be the largest publicly traded U.S. company focused on small home appliances. The company will be based in the Richmond area.

“Hamilton Beach Inc. is going to have greater scale and will be more competitive in an increasingly consolidated industry, and it will also have this capital structure flexibility that it didn’t have previously,” says Christina Kmetko, manager-finance for Cleveland-based NACCO Industries Inc., the parent company of Hamilton Beach/ Proctor-Silex.

Richmond-based Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex had sales of $528 million and a profit of $20.3 million last year. Applica, based in Miramar, Fla., had a loss of $49.3 million on sales of $556 million.

The merged company is expected to have annual sales of about $1.1 billion and a strong international presence. The company also will have a portfolio of some of the industry’s best-known brands, including Black & Decker, LitterMaid, Windmere, TrueAir and Traditions. Using those brands, Hamilton Beach Inc. plans to market a wide range of products, including coffee makers, blenders, toaster ovens, indoor grills and air purifiers.

To create a tax-free deal, Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex will be spun off to NACCO shareholders. Then Applica will merge with Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex. The merged company will take on its new name and apply to the New York Stock Exchange to list its shares.

NACCO stockholders are expected to own 75 percent of Hamilton Beach Inc.’s, common stock, while Applica stockholders will own 25 percent.