Pampered Chef is a multinational

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...

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. It has a worldwide direct sales force of about 35,000 in addition to 400 corporate staff. The company is headquartered in

Addison, Illinois Addison is a village located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 36,942 at the 2010 census. History The community itself was originally named Dunkley's Grove after the settler Hezekia ...

, and operates in five countries: the

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Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, and

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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 professional-quality kitchen tools directly to consumers through in-home cooking demonstrations, a concept first popularized by

Tupperware Tupperware is an American home products line that includes preparation, storage, and serving products for the kitchen and home. In 1942, Earl Tupper developed his first bell-shaped container; the brand products were introduced to the public in 1 ...

. The company expanded to Canada in 1996, the UK in 1999, Germany in 2000, Austria in 2019, and France in 2020. The company was acquired in 2002 by Warren Buffett's

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...

corporation. On October 30, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway appointed long time advisor Tracy Britt Cool to the position of CEO. According to Direct Selling News, "the company’s revenue has fallen from $320 million in 2015 to $280 million in 2018." In March 2020, the company's COO, Andrew Treanor, took over on the role of CEO. The company closed its UK business, and wound down UK operations as of December 31, 2015.

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. 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.

References

Berkshire Hathaway Multi-level marketing companies Marketing companies established in 1980 Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Kitchenware brands 1980 establishments in Illinois 2002 mergers and acquisitions American corporate subsidiaries {{US-company-stub