MARCH 2015 RETAILOBSERVER.COM
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essence, a category of one – the brand of built-in refrigeration, and
synonymous with luxury home design.
In the 1990s, as designers asked for products to help
them break from conventional kitchen layouts, Sub-Zero
introduced integrated refrigeration — refrigerator and
freezer drawers and cabinets that could be installed
anywhere from a kitchen island to a breakfast nook.
It transcended the idea of storing food all in one unit
and blended principal and satellite refrigeration
units into the décor. Integrated refrigeration helped
further cement Sub-Zero's place as the go-to brand
for designers and architects.
But if the design community and homeowners sat up
and took notice of each new development at Sub-Zero,
so did the appliance industry. More and more appliance
makers were rushing to market with built-ins modeled after
Sub-Zero. Growth at Sub-Zero was showing signs of stagnation.
There was talk among insiders of selling the company.
Enter Jim Bakke. After graduating from college, he had begun his
career not with the family business but with Oscar Mayer, learning
how that iconic company achieved long-term success. After returning
to Sub-Zero, he worked his way up from assembler to customer
service rep to regional sales manager to plant manager to national
sales manager and eventually to executive vice president.
Now, as president and CEO, he saw Sub-Zero's future not in
selling the brand outside the family but in a bolder direction:
diversifying. He reasoned that if the company could be synonymous
with design and performance in one facet of the kitchen, food
preservation, then it could do the same in another facet, food
preparation. He and his team began the search for an existing brand
as renowned for cooking great meals as Sub-Zero was for keeping
food fresh.
ingful innovations that contribute to the life of the home."
Jim Bakke—President and CEO, Sub-Zero
