Iowa’s two appliance giants plan to join forces. Newton-based Maytag will pay 325-million dollars to acquire the Amana division which includes major appliances and microwave ovens, but Maytag will -not- buy the Amana heating and air conditioning line. Maytag president and C-E-O Leonard Hadley says Maytag is the top-consumer preferred brand for clothes washers and dryers and dishwashers. Maytag’s Jenn-Air brand is number-one for cooking. Amana has a 95-percent consumer awareness rating for its refrigerators. Hadley says the Amana purchase “extends our premium brand strategy in major appliances.”The purchase includes three of Amana’s factories in Amana (Iowa), Arkansas and South Carolina. Hadley says the acquired Amana businesses will add about 900-million dollars to Maytag’s annual revenue, a 25-percent increase for the home appliance division.Maytag has 12-thousand employees, about 35-hundred of them in Newton. Amana Appliances has about four thousand workers. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval which Hadley expects in the third quarter.
