Groupe SEB (EPA: SK) is a publicly listed company headquartered in Écully, France that owns 7 consumer brands, and has 4 recorded transactions.[1]
Groupe SEB traces to a Burgundy tinsmith in 1857 and made the first domestic pressure cooker in 1953, which established it. It is the largest small domestic appliance company in the world, and the founding families retain control through a holding company.
Groupe SEB acquired the Instant Pot business out of its parent's bankruptcy. Instant Brands had merged with the maker of Pyrex in 2019 and filed for bankruptcy protection four years later, so a product that grew through word of mouth ended up sold in an insolvency.
Groupe SEB acquired WMF for about EUR 1.585 billion, its largest purchase. The attraction was the professional coffee machine business supplying cafes, hotels and offices rather than the consumer cookware the brand is better known for.
Groupe SEB acquired All-Clad for about $250 million, buying the bonded stainless steel cookware that is standard in American professional kitchens. All-Clad still manufactures in Pennsylvania using a metal-rolling process its founder developed for industrial applications.
Groupe SEB bought Moulinex out of liquidation after the company collapsed, taking a brand that had become a byword for kitchen appliances in France. Competition authorities cleared the purchase only with conditions on the group's share of the French market.