The History of Dirt Devil
The first Royal vacuum
cleaners were made by the
P.A. Geier Company in 1905.
This makes us one of the
world´s oldest vacuum
cleaner manufacturing
companies. Mr. Geier started
producing his metal cleaners
by hand in a backyard garage
in Cleveland, Ohio. Soon the
company grew and moved to a
four-story building where it
operated two divisions, a
cleaner division and a
machining division. Besides
vacuum cleaners, the company
produced mixers, hair dryers
and washing machine units.
Vacuum cleaners, though,
remained the key product, as
the company introduced the
industry´s first hand-held
vac, the "Royal Prince," in
1937. Royal joined most
manufacturing companies
across the country and
switched over to military
production during World War
II.
Vacuum cleaner shipments
remained strong up to 1953
when the P.A. Geier Company
was bought by an investment
group, the Walter E. Schott
Organization. The Schotts
renamed the company Royal
Appliance Manufacturing.
However, the new owners were
not wholly committed to the
company and decided to
dissolve it soon after its
acquisition. Royal was then
purchased by a group of
employees, headed by Stan
Erbor, in 1954.
In 1981, a small group of
investors saw an opportunity
to purchase the company and
to bring a fresh sales and
marketing strategy. With
this new leadership, our
sales grew from just under
$5 million in 1981 to
approximately $408 million
in 2000.
In 1984, Royal introduced an
innovative new product, the
Dirt DevilŽ Hand Vac,
which has grown to become
Royal´s signature product
and the largest selling
hand-held corded vacuum
cleaner in the United
States. Since its debut,
more than 23 million Dirt
Devil Hand Vacs have been
sold. This success has
opened the door for many new
product introductions under
the Dirt Devil brand name.
Today, Royal enjoys 98
percent brand name awareness
in the Dirt Devil name and
manufactures uprights, hand
vacs, stick vacuums,
canister vacs, and carpet
shampooers. These products
are now sold through major
retailers nationwide.
