OASIS International

OASIS International

Formerly	Ebco Manufacturing Company, D.A. Ebinger Sanitary Manufacturing Company
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Appliance manufacturing
Predecessor	Oasis Corporation
Founded	1910; 115 years ago (1910)
Headquarters	Columbus, OH
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Water coolers Dehumidifiers Drinking fountains Water filters
Parent	Culligan[1]
Website	www.oasis.ie www.oasiscoolers.com

OASIS International is an American company that manufactures drinking water coolers, non-refrigerated water fountains, bottled water dispensers, and dehumidifiers in 80 countries^[2] in North America, Asia, and the EMEA regions. Its head office is in Columbus, Ohio and it has production facilities in Mexico and Poland. It also has its European headquarters in Ireland and a permanent office in Shenzhen, China.

The company's history dates to 1910, when it was founded as the "D.A. Ebinger Sanitary Manufacturing Company," and later known as "EBCO." It renamed itself "Oasis" after its popular product lines in 1996.

History

The company was founded as the D.A. Ebinger Sanitary Manufacturing Company in 1910 with its first warehouse located at 400 West Rich Street^[3][4] in Columbus, Ohio manufacturing toilet, sanitary fixtures, and plumbing supplies.^[5] After a series of changes in its product categories, it renamed Ebco Manufacturing Company in 1935^[6][7] before developing into new categories such as water fountains, coolers, dehumidifiers, as well as refrigeration parts.^[8]

The company began branding these products under the "OASIS" name in the 1940s.^[9] By 1950, it had employed 200 employees^[10] and had begun a major expansion of its facilities with a windowless air-conditioned factory in 1953. This was after expanding into the dehumidifier and juice dispenser product categories to a total of 290,000-sqft in 1960^[11] at 265 North Hamilton Road.

Original factory established in Columbus, Ohio, in 1910^[12]

In 1992, a 30,000-sqft manufacturing facility in Ireland^[13] was established for the production and distribution of its products in the European and the Middle Eastern market^[14] before it was renamed Oasis Corporation later in 1996 due to the popularity of its Oasis line of products.^[9][15]

By the 1990s, it had achieved having the majority of the market share of the bottled water coolers sold in the industry.^[16] It expanded to a new manufacturing facility in Poland in 2001 and subsequently acquired Sunroc Corporation in 2003, then the third largest bottled water cooler manufacturer,^[17][18] before having its assets acquired in 2005 by Patriarch Partners due to competition from lower-cost Asian competitors. It was subsequently renamed to OASIS International.^[19]

Products

Water coolers

The company manufactures bottled as well as point-of-use water coolers. It holds several patents in water cooler and dispenser technology including the invention of the disposable bottled cooler water dispenser.^[20] Popular products include the Kalix line of water coolers as well as the Aquapointe and Versafiller line of bottle fillers.^[21]

It also manufacturers accessories such as water filters and water filtration systems and has partnered with Aquisense on a disinfection solution for water coolers through the use of UV LED filtration.^[22]

Dehumidifiers

Since 1960, the company expanded into a new product category of dehumidifiers for commercial purposes and has been manufacturing them ever since after scaling up to a new factory in 1953.

Smart technology

In recent years, Oasis has addressed environmental concerns of plastic pollution with a focus on eco-friendly products by introducing bottle filler units at airports with bottle counting functionality.^[23][24] It had also expanded its products with smart water coolers. It began collaborating with Flowdaq, and Ireland-based startup and Activewhere, a Portugal-based industry route management developer, in the hardware development of bottled coolers with IoT functionality running on the Sigfox network.^[25][26]

References

1. Gladstone, Alexander (2019-08-27). "Another Tilton Company Sold to Repay Zohar Creditors". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
2. Goldstein, Steve (2019-01-16). "The one product even the Trump administration concedes has to come from China: water coolers". Market Watch. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
3. Elliott, Susannah (2016-06-16). "What are the past and future of the abandoned buildings near 400 West Rich?". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
4. Gaitten, Chris (2 May 2018). "A Glimpse Inside 400 West Rich". Columbus Monthly. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
5. "D A Ebinger Sanitary Manufacturing Co :: Columbus in Historic Photographs". digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
6. Hunker, Henry (1953). "The Industrial Evolution of a Commercial Center". Ohio State University: 168.
7. Benua, Albert Ray; Hancock, Albert L. (1962). The Benua History. Columbus, Ohio: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. pp. BF–11.
8. Bryant, V.R. (2014-03-01). "Strong In Spirit". 614 Columbus. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
9. "What Do the Letters "EBCO" Mean on a Water Fountain Handle?". Reference.com. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
10. Flood, William (2015). Whitehall. Arcadia Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 978-1467114509.
11. Benua, Albert; Hancock, Albert L. (1962). The Benua History. Columbus, Ohio: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. pp. BF–8.
12. Columbus, "the Capital City". Columbus, Franklin County; Ohio: Pen and Pencil Club. 1915. p. 87. ASIN B001BLJBLQ.
13. Creaton, Siobhan (1999-03-09). "100 new jobs at firm in Ballina". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
14. Building Services (1992-11-01). "EBCO Oasis for Ballina". Building Service News. Vol. 31, no. 8. p. 4. doi:10.21427/D7MD8Z. ISSN 0791-0878. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
15. Beverage World, vol. v110, VNU eMedia, 1991-08-01, pp. 78 (1), ISSN 0098-2318
16. Andersen, Wayne R. (1998-07-10). "ELKAY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. EBCO MANUFACTURING COMPANY and EBTECH CORPORATION, Defendants" (PDF). World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
17. "OASIS Corporation Acquires Sunroc Corporation Water Products Industry Leader Merges with Competitor". Retrieved 2018-03-15.
18. Ashley, Anderson (November 2003). "Oasis Corp.'s acquisition of Sunroc Corp". Supply House Times. 46 (9): 6.
19. Goins, Tony (2005-08-31). "Investment firm buys Oasis assets". www.bizjournals.com. "American City Business Journals" which owns "The Business Journals". Retrieved 2018-03-19.
20. US 3060703, Benua, Louis P. & Taylor, William, "Water Cooler and Dispenser", published 1962-10-30 
21. Griffiths, Sian (2015-09-07). "Cooler design: combining aesthetics and functionality". FoodBev Media. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
22. "OASIS International and AquiSense Technologies in Partnership". The Maritime Executive. 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
23. Brockman, Joshua (2017-11-20). "Instead of That $5 Water Bottle at Airports, Filling Stations". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
24. Yamanouchi, Kelly (2013-06-21). "Water bottle filling stations coming to airport". The Atlantic Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
25. Bruce, Bill (2018-11-02). "The Shape Of Things To Come". Bottled Water Reporter. Vol. 58, no. 6. International Bottled Water Association. p. 12. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
26. "Flowdaq | Sigfox Partner Network". SIgfox. Retrieved 2018-12-03.