The company was founded in 1936 by J. Ralph Corbett in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1967 when the Corbetts sold their interest in the company to the Scoville Manufacturing Company, NuTone was the largest American producer of home electrical products. Nortek, Inc. acquired NuTone from Williams plc in 1998, adding it to the Broan Group, for a purchase price of $242.5 million.