About BISSELL
You could call us a company full of neat freaks. And that's fine. Because at BISSELL, all we care about is finding ways to make your home a cleaner place. For more than 130 years, our family-owned corporation has developed and created the world's best cleaning tools. From the deep-down microscopic source of your family's wheezing and sniffling to the stains, dirt and animal dander that wreak havoc on your home life. We've redefined the concept of clean with a family of innovative floor care products such as vacuums, carpet sweepers, carpet deep cleaners and bare floor vacuums. Along with a full line of time-tested floor cleaning chemicals, such as our professional carpet shampoo, each product is designed to improve the ways you take care of your home, especially the biggest home of all - Earth. Using our innovative spirit, we're constantly searching for new ways to make our products safer for the environment. After all, when BISSELL says clean, we mean clean.
A History of Good Business Since 1876
BISSELL's goal is to help you improve the ways you take care of your home, right down to the microscopic irritants. Since 1876, we've spent years developing cleaning tools designed to keep your living environment up to the highest standards, including affordable solutions such as refurbished vacuums.
In the mid-1800s, Anna and Melville Bissell owned a small crockery shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While cleaning up after the day's work, Anna often became frustrated with the sawdust that was embedded in the carpet. The tiny, stubborn particles clung to the carpet, and trying to sweep them up was becoming a time-consuming nuisance.
Anna presented the problem to Melville, her mechanically inclined husband. Melville designed and constructed a carpet sweeper machine that he hoped would solve the problem once and for all.
His ingenious carpet sweeper design was a success, and word of Melville Bissell's carpet sweeper spread quickly. People soon began asking where they could purchase carpet sweepers for themselves.
The BISSELL Carpet Sweeper was patented in 1876, and in 1883 the first BISSELL manufacturing plant was built in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Following Melville Bissell's untimely death in 1889, Anna Bissell stepped in and confidently took control of the company, becoming America's first female corporate CEO.
Under Anna's aggressive and innovative management, BISSELL soon began to look in new directions in product development for their budding carpet sweeper line and to expand their carpet sweeper business to include all the continents of the world.
As lifestyles changed, the company expanded beyond the carpet sweeper and introduced additional products that helped people clean better while saving time. In the 1950s, BISSELL invented a new multi-purpose formula and shampooer that reduced the time involved in and the drudgery of carpet cleaning. To meet the growth of smaller living spaces, BISSELL introduced practical, lightweight cleaners that people could use quickly and store easily. And BISSELL made deep cleaning (once the exclusive domain of commercial providers) available to everyone with its introduction to the consumer market of the current carpet deep cleaners that feature a built-in heater to optimize performance. Additionally, BISSELL recently acquired the Woolite® Carpet and Upholstery business, which includes its renowned line of carpet cleaning products. Even though the dust is now somewhat settled, BISSELL remains focused on the future.
