Sanden was first established as Sankyo Electric Company by Kaihei Ushikubo as a manufacturer of bicycle lamps, with a distinctive owl trademark.
1950’s: Introducing refrigeration
Sankyo Electric Company entered the electric home appliance market by producing electric washers and mini-motors. Drawing on these successes, Sankyo Electric produced an open-type refrigeration showcase for business use, which became the first of its kind in the industry.
1960’s: Vending machine
As sales figures for refrigeration units steadily increased, Sankyo Electric developed another innovation, which would later become one of its most successful ventures – the original bubble juice vending machine.
1970’s: Automotive air-conditioning
Sankyo Electric entered into a technical alliance with Mitchell Corporation, and began producing compressors for passenger cars in 1970, which marked an entrance into the automotive market. With this new industry came a new corporate identity – Sanden.
1980’s: Becoming a global enterprise
In 1981, Sanden developed a scroll-type compressor for automotive for the first time in the world. Sanden also acquired Vendo, the second largest vending machine manufacturer in the U.S. Sales and production bases were created all over the world, and Sanden became a truly global enterprise and industry leader.