This is Viking Range Corporation. The benchmark for gourmets. Before Viking, home chefs had no real options. And after Viking, there are no other options. From the introduction of our flagship ranges to the Viking Culinary Travel program, Viking has become synonymous with the epicurean lifestyle.
 
 Viking Range has become much more than a range. It is a way of life – for our customers as well as our employees. We introduced professional cooking to the home in 1987, and gourmets the world over rejoiced. So we added a rangetop. Then a dishwasher. A refrigerator. Even an outdoor range. And along the way, we created our own culture of creativity and innovation. Now we’re applying Viking perfection to new categories like cookware, cutlery, and small appliances. And we won’t stop innovating, but will continue to introduce new and exciting products for every corner of the Viking kitchen.
 
 The Evolution of the Viking Kitchen
 Necessity is the mother of invention. Fred Carl, a fourth-generation building contractor, hit upon the idea of the Viking range in the 1980’s when he discovered the range he wanted for his own new home didn’t exist.
 
 Fred and his wife, Margaret, desired a range with heavy-duty commercial performance and design. But real commercial ranges were impractical, unwieldy, and unsafe for a domestic kitchen. So Fred took to the drawing board.
 
 After countless late nights, he finally arrived at a hybrid that corralled the cooking power and features of a professional range into a design feasible for home use. And he decided it was time for just such a product to be brought to market. The first Viking ranges shipped in January, 1987. Incredible consumer response quickly overwhelmed Fred’s contract manufacturer.
 
 Viking soon opened its own manufacturing plant in Greenwood, Mississippi, and realized there was room for professional performance in every corner of the kitchen. By the end of the 1990’s, Viking would operate three manufacturing facilities in Greenwood, and the Viking kitchen would grow to include built-in cooking, ventilation, refrigeration, cleanup, and outdoor products – and an entirely new appearance for professional performance with the Designer line.
 
 Viking continues to branch out and improve upon more product categories, introducing cutlery, cookware, and small appliances. But these aren’t mere vanity items. They offer the same exceptional performance and craftsmanship people expect from the Viking brand. And that’s what they’ll always get from Viking. Cooking isn’t a necessity, it’s a passion – for us and our customers. They won’t settle for anything less than the best in the kitchen, and neither will we.
 
 Viking Today
 Viking Range Corporation is located in the city where it originated, Greenwood, MS. Our corporate headquarters now occupies an entire block of Greenwood’s beautifully restored historic Cotton Row. Viking’s growth has led the revitalization the city’s downtown, with the Viking offices spread between 12 buildings, all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several of the buildings have also received state and national historic preservation awards for their meticulous renovations.
 
 And we currently operate three manufacturing plants and a distribution center, with over 1,000 employees on the local payroll. That’s quite a stretch from the days of Fred and his small staff assembling a range in a converted warehouse. Today’s facilities utilize state-of-the-art machinery, diagnostic checkpoints, and progressive production techniques to keep things running smoothly – on the line and in the kitchen. Our cooking products plant now encompasses 230,000 square feet. The 153,000-square-foot refrigeration plant sits next door to the cooking products facility. Our 95,000-square-foot ventilation plant is located a little further down the road, conveniently adjacent to our 80,000-square-foot distribution center. Our dedication to innovation ensures these facilities will continue to expand.
 
 Viking major appliances are sold through a network of domestic and international major appliance distributors, who in turn sell to high-end dealers, kitchen specialist and builders. Culinary products are sold through upscale gourmet shops as well as Viking Culinary Arts Centers.
 
 In addition to the U.S., Viking products have been sold in over 80 countries internationally.