Dear Andrew, the story is as follows.

In 1934, Mr George Foerstner from Amana, Iowa, an old German (Amish) community town, built his first beverage cooler.

2 years later, in 1936, his young company Amana Refrigeration (named after the town, where it all started) introduced its second (but not last) break-through product, the walk-in beverage cooler, also known as a cold storage locker.

During the World War II, the Amana brand was rewarded the Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence for supplying the military with its walk-in coolers.

After the WWII, the AMANA company branched out from the refrigeration field, starting to produce another appliances as well - e.g. the Amana Radarange, the first portable microwave oven in 1967 (in 1965, Amana was acquired by Raytheon).

Goodman Global Holding Company, Inc. (one of US main players in HVAC) purchased Amana in 1997.

Maytag Corporation bought AMANA from Goodman in June 2001. Maytag paid approximately $325 million (95 % in cash and 5% in Maytag stock).

Now Maytag (and AMANA) belongs under Whirlpool who acquired Maytag in August 2005 for $2,7 billion (including $977 million of Maytag´s debts). Whirlpool´s portfolio includes (05/2007) brands like:

- Whirlpool;
- Maytag;
- KitchenAid;
- Jenn-Air;
- Amana;
- Inglis;
- Estate;
- Roper;
- Magic Chef or
- Gladiator.

And, well, Amana still produces its fridges in Iowa.