Episode 47: The Private Equity Playbook - Instant Pot
What does a Canadian kitchen gadget have to do with a MAGA-branded pressure cooker, a shuttered Pennsylvania glass factory, and a lobbying firm accidentally picking a fight with the Trump Organization? Quite a lot, it turns out.
In this episode of our series The Private Equity Playbook, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra and collaborator Anna Canning trace how Instant Pot, one of the most beloved kitchen gadgets of the 2010s, became a textbook case of everything private equity does to the things we own, the places we live, and the communities we call home.
From its origins as an internet phenomenon to its collapse under millions in manufactured debt, the Instant Pot story hits every ingredient of the private equity recipe: roll-ups, debt-loading, dividend recaps, antitrust, factory closures, and even a bizarre MAGA branding scheme. We connect Instant Pot’s story to the shuttering of the Pyrex factory in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, anti-immigrant scapegoating during the 2024 election, and the increasingly surreal overlap between political influence, lobbying, and consumer brands.
In this episode, we explore:
What a dividend recapitalization actually is and how private equity firms extract money from companies while offloading any financial risk.
The use of private equity roll-ups – raising major questions about monopoly power and market concentration.
How the closure of the historic Pyrex factory in Charleroi, Pennsylvania became a case study in capitalist scapegoating and racist political rhetoric.
Why antitrust law often fails to stop private equity consolidation.
The bizarre story of the MAGA Instant Pot, including the attempted launch of Trump-branded home goods, the role of lobbying firms amid looming antitrust scrutiny, and how an effort to curry political favor reportedly backfired into an intellectual property dispute with the Trump Organization.
How public pension funds help finance private equity takeovers.
Private equity firms are able to roll up and decimate entire industries despite anti-trust laws. Nearly the entire American kitchenware market is now owned by one private equity firm. — Manpreet Kaur Kalra
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Who Owns Instant Pot?
Okay, so in classic private equity fashion, this story consists of many different financial maneuvers and several ownership changes, so we decided to share a brief overview here to help you follow Instant Pot’s journey through private equity transactions:
2019: Cornell Capital, a private equity firm founded by former Goldman Sachs executive Henry Cornell, acquired Instant Pot by merging it with Corelle Brands.
2023: After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2023, the company was acquired by another private equity firm, Centre Lane Partners.
2024: Through a series of transactions, Centre Lane transferred ownership of Corelle Brands to a subsidiary of Anchor Hocking, another kitchenware company in Centre Lane's portfolio.
Within just two years of purchasing Instant Pot, Cornell Capital gutted it of its value and literally paid that money straight into the private equity bosses' pockets. — Anna Canning
What is the MAGA Instant Pot?
In June 2025, Centre Lane's portfolio of companies announced a collection of Trump-branded home goods marketed as the "45/47 Collaboration," referencing Donald Trump's terms as the 45th and 47th U.S. president. Products announced included an Instant Pot branded with the "Make America Great Again" tagline, a "Mar-a-Lago" bedsheet collection, among others. The initiative appeared to be part of a lobbying strategy to curry favor with the Trump administration amid a potential FTC antitrust inquiry into Centre Lane's kitchenware acquisitions. The campaign backfired when the Trump Organization threatened legal action over the use of Trump's name and likeness without a licensing agreement.
What Is a Private Equity Rollup?
A rollup is a private equity strategy in which a firm acquires multiple companies in the same industry in order to consolidate market share, reduce competition, and create a larger entity that can be sold or taken public at a higher valuation than the sum of its parts. The strategy often involves cost-cutting through consolidation of operations, which frequently results in layoffs and facility closures.
Centre Lane Partners has executed a rollup of the American kitchenware and dining industry, acquiring: Lenox crystal, Oneida flatware, Anchor Hocking glassware, and – through its acquisition of Instant Brands out of bankruptcy – Pyrex, Corning Ware, SnapWare, Corelle dishware, and the Instant Pot brand.
Public Pension Funds are Funding Private Equity
One of the big sources of money that private equity firms use to buy up companies comes from public pension funds. Which means that school teachers and other public employees' retirement savings are being used to fund the systematic destruction of the communities that they call home.
Pension fund boards are a place where we can push back and advocate for other investments. These boards are supposed to be acting in the interests of public employees. And that means there's real space to organize, to show up, to demand for pension funds to establish guidelines or principles, or simply to refuse to increase their investments in the private equity funds.
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Art of Citizenry Episode 27: The Growing Role of Private Equity in Fashion
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