History
KDK became part of the Matsushita Conglomerate in 1956. Matsushita Seiko as it was known is no longer headquartered in Osaka, Japan; manufacturing for KDK and Panasonic Ventilating products was transferred from Selangor, Malaysia to mainland China in 2001. All manufacturing is done at the Shenzhen Panasonic Air Works Co., Ltd. factory in Shenzhen, China and the international sales offices has also re-located to Hong Kong under the Matsushita Seiko Hong Kong International Manufacturing Company, Ltd. known as "HIMCO" since 2001.
The oldest KDK distributor is Abdulaziz & Sulaiman Saleh Al-Hakbany Sons Trading Co. from Saudi Arabia which dates back to 1936. Puerto Rico is the second oldest KDK distributor dating back to 1940. The newest distributors for KDK are La Innovaccion from the Dominican Republic (2002) and O.C.S. from Jamaica (2004); the latter also distributes National Branded Fans which will now be known as Panasonic as in 2008.
KDK has made two attempts to distribute their products in contiguous United States. The first attempt was in 1983 when U.S.-based Patton Industries imported the electric oscillating fans, relabeled them "KDK by Patton", and the ceiling fans were then relabeled "RoyalAire" by Sumitomo America, one of Matsushita's banks, shareholders and insurance providers. This was a failure as the products never caught on with consumers. The second attempt was in 1998. Miami-based importer Caribbean Export Appliances,Inc. tried to sell KDK products but, due to their high resale prices and poor selection of models and colors, sales were minimal. The inventory was exported to Jamaica and other Caribbean nations until the Puerto Rico distributor reported it to Matsushita Seiko, which in return revoked Caribbeans Exports' distribution license.
In April 2002, Matsushita Seiko Co., Ltd. changed its name to Matsushita Ecology Systems Co.,Ltd. after corporate restructuring and dissolution of the partnership between Matsushita and Seiko. The company opened a wholly owned sales branch in Malaysia in 2002 and another in Indonesia a year after for distributing its fans without any licensed distributor.
In 2009, KDK celebrated the 100th anniversary of its establishment.
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