Vent-A-Hood Celebrates 80th Anniversary

RICHARDSON, Texas – (January 10, 2013) – Vent-A-Hood®, the company that created the modern residential range hood, is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

“This is a monumental year for Vent-A-Hood® and a fantastic tribute to the perseverance of manufacturing in America,” said Miles “Skip” Woodall III, CEO of Vent-A-Hood®.

A Made In America success story, Vent-A-Hood® is a third-generation family-owned business that began in 1933 when Carr P. Collins launched an entrepreneurial idea to bring indoor cooking ventilation to the masses across North America. The range hood was a novel idea at the time, but Vent-A-Hood® would soon make it a mainstay in modern home construction and introduce a whole new appliance to the kitchen industry.

Collins, a Dallas philanthropist and founder of Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company, financed the new business and recruited his nephew, Miles Woodall, Jr. to manage Vent-A-Hood® in 1938.

The company prospered with representatives going door-to-door to educate consumers about the product and drive sales. With each new order, the product was then manufactured by hand at a warehouse in Dallas and delivered and installed.

At the heart of Vent-A-Hood®’s success was a patented centrifugal blower, called the Magic Lung, which earned the company several U.S. patents, appliance awards and legendary customer praise over the decades that continues to this day.

“It was viewed as a luxury in the early years to have a range hood,” recalls Skip Woodall. “Photos of Hollywood actors like Rock Hudson and Doris Day, standing in their kitchens by their Vent-A-Hood®, still adorn our company walls.”

After outgrowing its fourth manufacturing plant in Dallas, Vent-A-Hood® relocated operations ‘to the country’ in 1962 and built a state-of-the-art facility in Richardson, Texas. Today, on priceless land at the center of a thriving Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Vent-A-Hood® headquarters has seen plant expansion, the addition of a training center, and countless equipment upgrades over the years to remain a leader of the indoor cooking ventilation industry.

Skip Woodall, who succeeded his father as CEO, and Skip’s brother Blake Woodall, vice president, now oversee a company that processes thousands of orders distributed to all 50 states and Canada each year.

And while much of the manufacturing process at Vent-A-Hood® is automated, the company still boasts veteran tradesmen in the custom division who manufacture hoods, such as one-of-a-kind copper canopies, completely by hand.

Like the three generations that have owned and operated the business, the larger Vent-A-Hood® family includes employees who have stayed with the company for more than 20 and 30 years. They are honored in the Vent-A-Hood® Hall of Fame, with names adorning a crowded series of plaques on the walls of the manufacturing plant.

“Our focus is on one thing: manufacturing the best range hoods in America,” said Woodall. “We count on an incredible team, and we take great pride in providing jobs to fantastic employees and superior appliances to happy customers. You don’t find those relationships everyday in the business world, but you find them at Vent-A-Hood®.”

Capping a strong 2012 that saw record-setting months for sales, the company projects a strong anniversary year ahead in spite of the economy. And it continues to revolutionize the way customers shop, design and order appliances, with interactive displays in design centers across North America and the popular success of its Build-A-Hood program on the Vent-A-Hood® website.

“We’ve seen this country go through booms and busts, and we’ve always stayed focused on our mission,” Woodall said. “That longevity is not only for the history books. It’s for the future.”

About Vent-A-Hood®:

Founded in 1933, Vent-A-Hood®, based in Richardson, Texas, is the oldest manufacturer of residential range hoods in America. Each product manufactured by Vent-A-Hood® is individually engineered for performance in addition to style. Vent-A-Hood® products are sold in all 50 states as well as Canada. For more information, please visit http://www.ventahood.com. You can also follow Vent-A-Hood® on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn.

For more information, please contact:
Monica Feid, BizCom Associates
972.490.8053 / monicafeid@bizcompr.com