The Instant Pot was loved. Now the maker has filed for bankruptcy

Add some ground beef, onions, peppers, tomatoes and spices. Press a button, go to work and return hours later to a perfectly cooked chili.

For a while, the Instant Pot, an electronically controlled device that could cook food at high pressure and slowly, was the kitchen tool everyone wanted. The product came out in 2010, quickly becoming a bestseller and spawning a legion of fans who called themselves “Potheads” and used their Instant Pots to create dozens of recipes.

Those Potheads are still around, making soups, stews, and puddings. But in recent years, the Instant Pot has failed to attract new fans and its parent company is struggling.

Instant Brands, the maker of the Instant Pot and other well-known brands such as Pyrex, Snapware and CorningWare, announced Monday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The move, according to the company, will raise $132.5 million in financing so it can stay afloat and restructure rather than liquidate its business. The company did not respond to a request for comment on its sales on Wednesday.

Ben Gadbois, president and chief executive of Instant Brands, said in a statement Monday that “after successfully navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and the global supply chain crisis, we continue to face additional global macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. challenges that have impacted our business. ”

Instant Brands said in a rack on Wednesday that the new financing would allow the company to continue paying workers, vendors and suppliers. Its entities outside the United States and Canada are not part of the bankruptcy filing.

The company did not say whether specific products sold poorly. But according to the market research firm Circana, sales in dollars and units for multicookers — appliances that can cook food in different ways — fell 20 percent from April 2022 to April 2023. Sales data for other Instant Brands products was not available.

The drop in sales followed a boom during the coronavirus pandemic: Multicookers and air fryer posted double-digit dollar sales in 2020, according to a report from the US. NPD group, a market research company that later merged with another company to form Circana. As a result, the report said, “many households now have these devices on hand.”

Instant Brands is one of many companies experiencing a drop in sales after a pandemic-induced spike.

Many people stuck at home during the height of the pandemic took up indoor activities, such as cooking and exercising, and bought the products they needed to do so, such as kitchen appliances and Peloton bicycles, said Barbara E. Kahn, a marketing professor at the Wharton School from the University of Pennsylvania.

But after the lockdowns ended, people found that “they don’t need another Instapot,” said Dr. Kahn, using the gadget’s popular nickname. “They don’t need another platoon. They don’t need those things they’ve already bought.”

After sales of Peloton bikes skyrocketed early in the pandemic, the home workout equipment company lost $439 million last year and laid off 20 percent of the workforce as people returned to the gym.

S&P Global, the credit rating and analysis company, downgraded Instant Brands’ rating last week due to lower consumer spending in discretionary categories; it did again Tuesday after the company filed for bankruptcy. S&P analysts wrote on June 8 that Instant Brands net sales fell 21.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from the same period last year, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of declining sales.

There is still hope for Instant Brands, said Smrity P. Randhawa, a professor of clinical accounting at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, as the Chapter 11 bankruptcy gives the company a chance to reorganize its operations. Part of the problem for companies like Instant Brands and Peloton, though, is that they produce long-lasting products that don’t require regular replacement, Dr. Randhawa said.

Dr. Kahn noted that companies making what are known in the economy as “sustainable products” need to give consumers a reason to replace their products.

Dr. Randhawa, who bought an Instant Pot during the pandemic, said she still uses it to prepare meals a few times a week.

“Social media sold it to me,” she said. “It works. It will probably last a long time, so you don’t have to rush to buy a new one.”