Kawakita Denki Kigyosha (
Japanese for "Kawakita Electric Company"; commonly known as KDK), is the brand name used by
Matsushita Ecology Systems Co., Ltd., a separate company of the
Panasonic Corporation (formerly the Matsushita Electric Industrial Group), to manufacture the group's
ventilating products. Before becoming part of Matsushita Electric, KDK was a separate company not affiliated with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. KDK was registered as a trademark in 1912 but originated in 1909 as Nippon Electric Industry Co. Ltd.
KDK primarily manufactures
electric fans, although the company also manufactures ceiling fans, ventilating fans,
range hoods,
air doors (air curtains),
hand dryers,
dehumidifiers, and subterranean air blowers, under the Panasonic brand.
History
KDK became part of the Matsushita Comglomerate 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. Before these, the local distributor for Puerto Rico had sole rights over the entire Caribbean region, and Southern U.S. states.
KDK has made two attempts to distribute their products in
contiguous United States, the first time in 1983 when U.S.-based Patton Industries imported the electric oscillating fans and relabeled them "KDK by Patton" and the ceiling fans were 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 time was in 1998 by Miami-based importer Caribbean Export Appliances,Inc. tried to sell KDK, but due to their high reselling prices and poor selection of models and colors imported by them, these never made it to the streets; inventory was exported to Jamaica and other Caribbean nations until the Puerto Rico distributor acknowledged this and reported it to Matsushita Seiko, which in return revokeD Caribbeans' 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.