Hearing that the Anchor Brewing Company was about to close and looking for a fitting business challenge outside his family's vast appliance concern, Maytag bought the company in 1965 and made enhancing its fortunes his mission. This venture did not initially meet with enthusiasm from his family back in Iowa. The Maytag family fortune grew dramatically over half a century as the family managed a vast appliance international manufacturing and distribution enterprise based in central Iowa. Its backbone was an extensive, technology-leading line of clothes washing machines. Significantly, the clothes washer is credited as one of the greatest time-, labor-, and money-saving improvements to home life. It is one of the technologies defining what the rest of the world saw as the admired, relaxed, American lifestyle. In the 1920s, clothes washing was generally an arduous task done by hand; the Maytag company was on the vanguard of automating this task. By the late 1930s Maytag machines became noted for their high quality, a more costly but especially long-lasting product--the opposite of "planned obsolescence." Meanwhile, on the marketing front, the company's highly recognized Lonely Maytag Repairman advertising promoted the brand and explained Maytag's higher price. Company advertising never veered from this central theme. Without overspending, the ad resonated and its message stuck, reinforcing the brand's most noteworthy competitive advantage. The Lonely Maytag Repairman is recognized as one of Madison avenue's most successful, longest-running and most cost-effective ad campaigns of the last century. With a commitment to quality and the use of more expensive raw materials being keys to the family's success in their Iowa washing machine business, Fritz Maytag was unafraid of Anchor Steam's low volume but higher-end market positioning. The brand had produced characterful local beer, but frequently in the 1950s and into the '60s it became contaminated, turning it sour. To revive the company, in his early years at Anchor Maytag invested extensively, borrowing heavily to revamp the company and expand capacity. In so doing, he placed at risk a substantial portion of his inheritance, because to procure the loans required, he was required to post Maytag stock as collateral. However, at this time, the late 1960s, a bear market controlled the U.S. equity market. Maytag stock fell, and his lenders required Fritz to post more and more of his inheritance. Meanwhile, he focused on turning around Anchor Brewing's fortunes. He both altered the recipe and the complex brewing process. Over time the beer surged in popularity. The brewery, once located on the upper floors of a building in what is presently San Francisco's Design District, moved, in 1979, to a new location nearby at the base of Potrero Hill; and, throughout the years, demand continued to climb. Not wanting to sacrifice the small size of the brewery, and, in turn, the quality of the beer, Maytag helped competitors become proficient in microbrewing. This helped to ease the strain on his own company. In 2010, Maytag sold the brewery.
