Ronco

Ronco was an American company that manufactured and sold a variety of items and devices, most commonly those used in the kitchen. Ron Popeil founded the company in 1964,[1] and infomercials and commercials for the company's products soon became pervasive and memorable, in part thanks to Popeil's personal sales pitches. The names "Ronco" and "Popeil" and the suffix "-O-Matic" (used in many early product names) became icons of American popular culture and were often referred to by comedians introducing fictional gadgets and As-Seen-On-TV parodies.

Ron Popeil was inspired to start the company by the open market hustling he saw on Maxwell Street in Chicago during his youth.[2] In the beginning, the company chiefly sold inventions developed by Popeil's father, Samuel "S.J." Popeil. Products include the Veg-O-Matic and the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, a product manufactured by S.J. Popeil's company. During the 1970s, Ron Popeil began developing products on his own to sell through Ronco.

In August 2005, Popeil announced his sale of the company to Fi-Tek VII, a Denver holding company, for $55 million. He was expected to continue working with the company as spokesman and product developer, but sold the company in order to have more time with his family. Fi-Tek VII changed its name to Ronco, and maintained the right of first look for Popeil's future inventions. He continued to develop and market inventions through a successor company, Ron's Enterprises.[3]

Popeil Inventions, Inc. attempted to acquire the trademark on the phrase "set it and forget it," used in the commercials for the Showtime Rotisserie Grill (and "Household goods, namely, rotisseries, electric food dehydrators and structural parts therefor, namely, dehydrator trays and screens") on May 5, 2005, but had abandoned the application by June 5, 2006[4] The phrase has gone on to be used in popular culture, and has also been used as a trademark in the sale of many other goods.[5]

On June 14, 2007, Ronco filed Chapter 11 in U.S. bankruptcy court. Paperwork filed showed that Ronco creditors, the largest of which was Popeil himself, were owed US$32.7 million.[6]

In 2011, CD3 Holdings, Inc., a consumer products company, acquired Ronco.[7]

On April 27, 2018, Ronco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking time to reorganize after failing to secure funding.[8]

On June 13, 2018, Ronco changed its bankruptcy filing from Chapter 11 (reorganization) to Chapter 7, full liquidation and shutdown.[9]

Ronco is known for a wide range of products marketed and in some cases invented by Ron Popeil. Among them are:

Ronco, like its rival K-tel, was also a record label, issuing compilation albums created for TV advertising and licensed from major record labels. In the United Kingdom, its first album was 20 Star Tracks, released in 1972. It issued three albums that reached No. 1 on the U.K. album charts: the That'll Be the Day soundtrack in 1973,[17] which was removed from the U.K. charts after six consecutive weeks at No. 1, as TV-advertised compilations were banned from the chart; Disco Daze and Disco Nites in 1981; and Raiders of the Pop Charts, released at the end of 1982, topping the chart in 1983. Its then-novel marketing techniques made it a major force, until the emergence of the Now That's What I Call Music! albums and their imitators, after which Ronco rapidly disappeared from the U.K. album market in 1984, when its parent company went bankrupt. Many of its U.K. ads in the 1970s and 1980s, whether for its kitchen products or albums, featured the voice of Tommy Vance.