WCI was acquired by Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux in 1986. The company changed its name to White Consolidated Industries (WCI) and ultimately acquired the Franklin Appliance Division of Studebaker. Things changed in the 1950s upon losing Sears as a client and thus 40 percent of its business, so the company aggressively changed their business model shifting manufacturing overseas, reducing diversification and acquiring other entities. Meanwhile, the White Manufacturing Company based in Cleveland, Ohio had turned all its focus to producing sewing machines and accessories in the early 1920s.
Therefore, at some point before 1963, Franklin exchanged hands from Domestic to Studebaker. producing private label kitchen and laundry appliances, including sewing machines. By the 1960s, Studebaker diversified away from automobiles, and among their outputs was their Franklin Appliance Division based in Minneapolis, Minn. The Franklin sub-brand appears to have been sold by Sears as early as 1911.įounded in 1852, Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. The foundings of Domestic Sewing Machine Company are ambiguous but the company had one of its factories at 16 Exchange Place, New York, NY. The brand itself has origins as a Domestic Sewing Machine, a company formed in the mid-1800s and produced a sewing machine of the same name until ultimately manufacturing additional lines, the most well known being the Franklin and Minnesota. This Franklin Sewing Machine easily folds into a table.