Mr. Kohler bucked the industry trend in the 1970s and doubled down on a material whose strength, style and soul had been part of the Kohler DNA since the very beginning.
When Herbert V. Kohler Jr. took the helm of Kohler Co. at age 33, one of his first major decisions as CEO was a daring one. In the early 1970s, instead of following the kitchen-and-bath industry toward more acrylics and other synthetic materials, Mr. Kohler (as he was known throughout the company) decided to double down on the Kohler legacy of producing kitchen and bath fixtures in cast iron.
At the time, his major investment in remodeling the cast-iron line received scoffs from other executives within the industry, but Mr. Kohler never wavered from a material that had been part of the Kohler DNA since his grandfather’s small foundry of cast-iron farm implements.
That wasn’t the only bold decision. To fund the venture, Kohler Co. took part in its first and only public offering of securities in company history. Both moves paid dividends. To date, more than 20 million cast-iron products have run through the production line Mr. Kohler invested in five decades ago. And within a few years of the public offering, every share had been repaid. Kohler Co. was once again—and remains to this day—a privately owned, independent company.