Atul Vir, founder and president of Houston-based Equator Advanced Appliances and Pinnacle Appliances serving the RV market, was recently named a Dealerscope Hall of Fame Class inductee for 2022.
According to Dealerscope, Vir was one of five business leaders who consistently excelled throughout their careers in the appliance, consumer technology and retail sectors. Dealerscope said the five leaders have made a significant impact on everything from branding to product features to corporate culture.
Vir isn’t just an executive; he’s also a founder, inventor and author. The CEO of Equator Advanced Appliances holds 18 different patents in appliance technology, and in addition to his success, he’s been widely cited as an expert and thought leader on business ethics, according to Dealerscope.
Vir’s business began with his idea of selling all-in-one washer/dryers to the North American market. Though Equator started as an import/export company, it has now grown into a massive appliance firm that sells its products in North America, as well as in Europe and Asia, according to Dealerscope. Vir’s company has won several awards and Vir is the author of the 2020 book “Underdog Thinking: A Bold Idea, a Business Adventure and 101 Lessons Learned Along the Way”.
Information below is taken from the write-up in Dealerscope magazine:
How did you get started in this business?
I was a new immigrant to the U.S. and was looking for new opportunities, so I decided to get into business for myself. I started Equator because I had experience working for an international company that operated in Europe and Africa. I started dabbling in various imports and exports, and about a year later, came up with the idea of a combo washer-dryer.
The idea came to me one day at home. We were living in an apartment, and my wife was spending every Sunday doing the laundry, going to the coin-op machine, putting clothes in and coming back, then 45 minutes later transferring to the dryer and coming back, and then going back again to pick up the clothes. It seemed like a real chore.
I remembered we had used a combo washer-dryer in England when we were there. I discovered that there were no combination washer/dryers here in the U.S. and decided to explore the idea. I went back to Europe and found a company from Italy that would make it for us. And that started this long quest. I cashed out my credit cards to buy the first container, and brought it in, and started selling them one by one.
And you know, I just grew it from there, until the business expanded and after a few years, it became a full-fledged appliance company, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 30 years. Equator has expanded from the early lines of laundry, refrigeration, dishwashers and cooking to a whole bunch of other products like wine coolers, floor care and climate control. With the pandemic, we have expanded into health/wellness and outdoor appliances.
Dealerscope is a magazine that covers consumer technology retailing.
Vir’s company, Pinnacle Appliances, was the recent recipient of RV PRO’s Best New Products: Parts & Accessories Award for 2022 for the company’s Air Conditioner 2000, and a waterless outdoor A/C designed to bring relief to those who want to be outside during the heat of the day.