Pampered Chef is a multinational

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

company that offers a line of kitchen tools, food products, and cookbooks for preparing food in the home. 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 in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 35,702 at the 2020 Census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. History The village was incorporated in 1884, at which time it had a population of 400. T ...

, and operates in five countries: the

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Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

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, 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

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

Tupperware Tupperware is an American company that manufactures and internationally distributes preparation, storage, and serving containers for the kitchen and home. It was founded in 1942 by Earl Tupper, who developed his first bell-shaped container and ...

. 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. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

corporation. On October 30, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway appointed long time advisor

Tracy Britt Cool Tracy Britt Cool (born September 7, 1984, in Manhattan, Kansas) is an American business executive and entrepreneur who was widely noted as a Warren Buffett protégé. She chaired four Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries before co-founding Kanbrick, a ...

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. Nevena Srebreva, in turn, took over the CEO role in May 2024. She was Pampered Chef's Chief Field & International Officer prior to that. 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.

Lawsuit

In April 2023, Pampered Chef was sued for alleged

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and sharing video viewing history from people visiting the company website with Google and Facebook. In June 2023, Pampered Chef settled the lawsuit claiming they did share video viewing history of users.

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