BusinessTN

A little company on the bank of the Tennessee River 30 miles west of Chattanooga has taken on all comers in cast iron cookware since 1896. Today, Lodge Manufacturing Co. is the last American manufacturer standing.

As impressive as the family-owned business’s 108-year survival might be, now it must fend off the leviathan of industrialized China. Low-cost labor, improved technology and a freer Chinese economy are curbing profit margins of the stronger American manu- facturers while spelling doom for the weaker.

No worries though for the South Pittsburg, Tenn., company as it continues to define a winning China strategy. After years of adroitly positioning their products at high quality levels to out-compete Chinese-made cookware, company leaders and cousins Bob Kellerman and Henry Lodge have seized on a new strategy—collaboration. Sourcing its cookware overseas for the first time, Lodge Manufacturing now has entered the enameled cookware market with products made in a foundry on mainland China.

“The quality of the cookware is at or above the level we wanted,” says Chief Executive Officer Kellerman. “It’s going to be interesting to see how Lodge Enamel competes in the marketplace.”

Based on early reviews from cookware experts, the red, cobalt blue and Granny Smith green Dutch ovens, casserole pans and apple pots just might find a market. To do so, they must be attractive alternatives to French manufacturer Le Creuset, the market leader. Lodge’s penetration of that market is “doable,” says Jennifer Hostetler, a Chicago store manager for Neiman-Marcus’s Chef’s catalog retail unit that carries Le Creuset. She notes that “the Lodge product is at a lower price point, so that will help.” Thyra Porter, senior editor of Home Furnishings News, agrees: “Lodge’s enameled line is a hit in terms of design and will be competitive in terms of price point with products from high-end competitors Le Creuset and Staub.”

As one would expect from a company that has prided itself on American- made heavy skillets going back to the days of President William McKinley, the selection of a Chinese manufacturer was a torturous decision. For two years, Lodge Manufacturing worked with a Chinese company on product quality checks and process refinements before at last signing off on the new enameled items

Yet Lodge Enamel isn’t the company’s only recent innovation. In another seeming break from company orthodoxy, Kellerman and Lodge introduced a pre-seasoned version of its heavy cast iron products in 2002. The company can charge a modest premium for this line, called Lodge Logic, which allows cooks to skip the first “seasoning” process of preparing the cast iron by coating it with vegetable oil or shortening then baking it for an hour at 350 degrees. “Remember, most big retailers don’t have helpful people standing around to tell customers how to season pans,” Porter says. “So by making that a no-brainer, Lodge has scored a hit.”

Respected cooking publication Cook’s Illustrated wrote in its June 2003 issue that based on its tests, “Lodge Logic outperforms a pan purchased unseasoned, but it can’t hold a candle to the performance of a pan that’s been seasoned by generations of cooks.” But it must be good enough—Lodge Logic and a newer line of more contemporary pre-seasoned cookware called Pro Logic now account for nearly half of company sales.

“Our slogan for the launch of these products was, ‘We should have done this 100 years ago,’” Kellerman laughs. Perhaps, but future Lodge descendants are apt to be pleased that today’s fourth-generation leadership added a little home seasoning and foreign sourcing when they did.