Instant Pot, Corelle Merger To Create $2B Company

A mega kitchen-products company is in the making at the North American market. This follows the reported merger plan of makers of hugely popular Instant Pot, Instant Brand, and Corelle Brands LLC. The latter owns Corelle and CorningWare brands.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the combined market value of the merged company will be $2 billion.

Instant Pot is a nice combination of the pressure cooker, rice cooker, and slow cooker. In the latest addition, it supplemented a blender and a few other accessories to the product portfolio.

Instant Pot brand is also famous for its Instant pot recipes that help busy people to make food with minimal preparation.

The merger of Ottawa-based Instant Brands and Rosemont, Chicago based Corelle Brands will be formally announced on Monday.

According to industry observers, the merger is unique as it conjoins many legacy houseware brands with a new hot brand like Instant Pot one-pot cooker. The latter had massive growth in the past two years.

Cornell Capital based in New York took over Corelle in 2017. Prior to that, it was known as World Kitchen. Under the combined company Cornell will also flaunt other brands such as Pyrex and SnapWare.

Although the financial terms of the merger are not available, information is that the combined entity will be led by Ken Wilkes, CEO of Corelle. Robert Wang, Instant Brands CEO and founder will be anointed the chief innovation officer.

Corelle’s brands are legacy brands dating back to glassmaker Corning Inc. According to Henry Cornell, founder of Cornell Capital the Pyrex bakeware introduced in 1915 is hugely popular and 80 percent of U.S. households own that brand.

Bright market outlook on cookware products

Market research by Technavio says global cookware market is set to grow 4 percent annually during the period 2019-23. This is happening on the back of rising awareness on cookware aesthetics and functionality as a demand driver.

It notes that earthy designs and modular concepts as a sustainability factor is influencing the U.S. and Western Europe.

The market research says a key driver of global cookware market is rapid growth in online sales.

As a result, vendors have a heightened focus on e-commerce channels.

Beyond the direct sale from own websites, vendors are also forging tie-ups with online e-commerce platforms like Amazon and trying to find a larger market outreach as in Amazon music.

However, Offline retail stores also contribute to sales revenue of vendors. The penetration of induction cookware and fascination for ceramic non-stick cookware are boosting the global cookware market, the report said.