Who Owns Whirlpool?

No single company owns Whirlpool. Whirlpool Corporation is an independent, publicly traded business (NYSE: WHR) headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, owned by its public shareholders. It is not a subsidiary of anyone. Instead, Whirlpool sits at the top of a large family of appliance brands that it owns outright.

If you searched this because an appliance carries the Whirlpool name or a related badge, the useful answer is the reverse of the question: Whirlpool is the owner, and it controls many of the brands in your kitchen and laundry room. That ownership is exactly why parts cross over between them.

Is Whirlpool owned by another company?

No. Whirlpool Corporation is one of the largest home appliance makers in the world and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WHR (a matter of public record). Being publicly traded means ownership is spread across shareholders rather than held by a parent corporation. Whirlpool acquires other brands; it is not itself owned by one.

That independence has a long history. Whirlpool has spent decades buying appliance brands and folding their engineering into shared platforms, which is the root of why a Maytag, a KitchenAid, and an Amana can use the same physical part.

Which brands does Whirlpool own?

Whirlpool owns a deep roster of household names, acquired over roughly four decades. The table below lists the major North American brands and how they came into the fold.

These acquisitions are documented in Whirlpool’s own corporate history. Whirlpool also owns brands it created rather than bought, including Gladiator garage storage, plus the Affresh cleaner and everydrop water filter lines you will see referenced across its appliances.

The 2006 Maytag deal is the big one for parts shoppers. In a single acquisition, Whirlpool absorbed Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana, and Admiral, then rationalized their components onto common designs. Magic Chef came over in the same deal but did not stay: Whirlpool sold the brand to CNA International in 2010, and it is not a Whirlpool brand today. That is why so many “different brand” appliances now share gaskets, valves, and control boards.

Has Whirlpool’s ownership changed recently?

Yes, mostly by shrinking its international footprint while keeping its core North American brands. Three moves stand out:

• In 2017, Whirlpool ended its roughly century-long relationship selling Whirlpool-branded appliances through Sears (widely reported when it happened).
• Whirlpool folded its European business into the Beko Europe joint venture with Arcelik, announced in 2023 and closed on April 1, 2024, taking about 25 percent to Arcelik’s 75 percent. In June 2026 Whirlpool agreed to sell that remaining 25 percent to Arcelik as well, ending its ownership of the European business entirely (per Whirlpool’s corporate disclosures and the parties’ announcements).
• Whirlpool cut its stake in its listed India business in two steps: from 75 percent to 51 percent in February 2024, then from 51 percent down to roughly 40 percent in a November 2025 block sale, which ended Whirlpool of India’s status as a subsidiary (per Whirlpool’s corporate disclosures and Indian exchange filings).

One naming trap worth flagging: the Hotpoint brand is split by region. Whirlpool held the European Hotpoint rights through Indesit, while Hotpoint in the United States is a GE Appliances (Haier) brand. They are not the same, so do not cross-shop their parts.

Is Whirlpool the same as Maytag or KitchenAid?

They are separate brands, but Whirlpool owns and builds all three. Maytag and KitchenAid are not independent companies today; they are brands in the Whirlpool portfolio, both brought in decades ago (KitchenAid in 1986, Maytag in 2006). Whirlpool builds them on shared engineering, which is why a Maytag, a KitchenAid, and a Whirlpool of the same class so often use identical internal parts. The brands still differ in styling, features, and price positioning, so a KitchenAid dishwasher is not merely a re-badged base Whirlpool. But mechanically, the overlap is deep, and that overlap is exactly what makes cross-brand parts sourcing work in your favor.

What does Whirlpool’s ownership mean for parts?

It means parts interchange across the whole Whirlpool family more often than you would expect. Because Whirlpool engineers Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, and its own units on shared platforms, one component frequently carries a single part number across several badges.

The clearest proof is a refrigerator door gasket like the Whirlpool 2159075. Its official fitment spans Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Magic Chef, Admiral, Roper, and even Kenmore units built by Whirlpool. That one gasket physically demonstrates the shared-platform reality: same part, many brand names. The practical takeaway is to shop by your appliance’s model number rather than by the brand on the door, because the underlying part may be Whirlpool no matter what the badge says.

Start at the Whirlpool parts page, then confirm the exact match with your model number.

Watch: a single Whirlpool-family gasket that fits Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana and more

The bottom line

Whirlpool owns itself — it is an independent, publicly traded corporation — and it owns a wide portfolio of familiar brands, most acquired in the 2006 Maytag deal. For repairs, that ownership is good news: shared platforms mean shared parts, so match your model number, and you will often find a genuine Whirlpool component fits your Maytag, KitchenAid, or Amana.

Written by: AppliancePartsPros Team