Southbend Range

About Southbend Range

Southbend, a division of the Middleby Corporation, is recognized as a global leader in heavy-duty, commercial cooking equipment. With perpetual new equipment innovations in the areas of energy savings, cooking speed, automation and safety, Southbend products are considered the best in the industry by chefs, consultants and industry experts. In 2005 Southbend achieved the prestigious "Best In Class" designation from Foodservice Equipment and Supplies, an honor voted on by industry peers. Southbend equipment--including ranges, steam equipment, countertop cooking equipment, convection ovens and other pieces--is installed in restaurants, institutional foodservice operations and supermarkets worldwide.

Southbend Range Company Timeline
1898 Southbend was started as Malleable Steel Range Manufacturing Co. by Harry Engman, William Kizer, Lew Matthews, and Jacob Woolverton at South Bend, Indiana. About ten years later, the company was taken over by the Woolverton family, to make a line of domestic coal and wood burning stoves.

1927- 1941 A line of commercial ranges and griddles was added to the product line. With the introduction of commercial ranges to the food service field, the firm decided to discontinue domestic ranges in 1941. From that time on, there has been a constant development of a heavier and better product line.

1977 South Bend Range saw the completion of a new plant in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. At this time, a limited number of product lines were transferred from South Bend to Fuquay-Varina, but by 1984 all production was moved to the North Carolina facility.

1984 Southbend aquires Escan Metal Ltd. of Montreal, Canada.

1987 Hussman Corporation purchases Southbend/Escan and moved the corporate offices from South Bend to Fuquay-Varina.

1989 The Middleby Corporation purchases Southbend from Hussman in July, 1989.

1993 The Marathoner Gold convection oven is introduced.

1996 Southbend introduces more new products than any other year, including: SilverStar Convection Oven, R-2 Steamer and the 400 Series Range.

1997 Record sales and shipments, along with the introduction of more new products, including the award winning Simple Steam Countertop Steamer.

1999 New products include the Simple Combi Oven and medium duty charbroilers, griddles, fryers, and ranges.