canadian model 616 kirby ??

VacuumLand – Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts

Help Support VacuumLand:

To get around import duties several different manufacturers (Kirby, President and Regina to name a few off the top of my head) contracted Switson industries of Welland, Ontario to produce their machines in Canada. In the case of Kirby they changed the first digit of the model number from 5 to 6 to denote a Canadian machine. Also they didn't change model numbers as often so, in this case, while the 616 was the same as the 516 the US models may have run up to 518 or even 519 while Switson was still producing the 516 for Canada.( I have the 615 and 662 in my collection)

**Note Switson also made vacuums of their own design under many other brand names including Switson, Valliant, Viking, Eatonia, Waverly, Coronado, Fairbanks Morse, Watermatic, Bradford, Baycrest, Viscount, Healthcare, Master, and Trendvac to name a few.
 
Question for @collector2

For Canadian Kirby machines, did they assemble the units with parts shipped from Cleveland? Or was the manufacturing process completely independent, with casting and other activities done in-house, without any involvement by Kirby, other than providing the specs?

I know in many cases, manufacturers of different products will just ship the pieces to the foreign factory to become a whole since that usually makes the most logistical and economic sense. Ex.: Mercedes-Benz does this with the Sprinter vans, they get shipped from Germany, unassembled, to be assembled as a finished product in their South Carolina plant. No stamping, casting or other sub-assembly manufacturing takes place.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top