Colville-based stove maker Home & Hearth Technologies Inc. has responded to a market downturnin sales of wood and pellet-burning appliances by cutting its workforce and expanding its product line to include lower-priced models, says Dennis Brasfield, vice president and general manager of the company's Colville operations.

The company also is leading efforts to seek state and federal recognition of wood pellets as a renewable fuel source, and it's working on plans to roll out heating appliances to be used for nonresidential applications.

Home & Hearth, a subsidiary of Muscatine, Iowa-based HNI Corp., accounts for about $300 million of HNI's annual revenues, which total $1.6 billion. HNI is one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the U.S., best known for its HON office furniture products.

Brasfield says Hearth & Home's revenues are expected to trend upward from 2010, although they're still below the pace of 2008 revenues.

"Our low point was under $300 million," he says. "As the economy recovers, we should continue to trend upwards from a $300 million to a $500 million business."

Hearth & Home currently employs about 120 people at its 120,000-square-foot plant on the northwest edge of Colville, some 70 miles northwest of Spokane, down from more than 150 employees a year ago.

The company trimmed its workforce in the first half of the year and adjusted its product line to meet or anticipate changing demand, Brasfield says, adding, "Now we're restructured to be profitable and grow."

As part of that strategy, the plant usually operates four 10-hour shifts a week, with Fridays and weekends off.

"That allows us to flex when we need to use overtime and pick up days on the production schedule," he says.

The Colville plant is home to the company's Quadra-Fire brand and manufactures mostly wood and pellet-burning stoves and fireplace inserts. It's one of four Hearth & Home plants. The other plants, which Brasfield says are roughly the same size and structure, are in Lake City, Minn.; Halifax, Pa., and Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They manufacture other brands of wood-product and gas-fired heating appliances, such as Heat & Glo, Heatilator, and Harman.

The company's latest innovation is an economy line of wood and pellet-burning appliances, Brasfield says.

The Eco-Choice line has a simplified manufacturing design that can be assembled more economically than its standard lines. "It's targeted for a better price point in this economy,"he says.

The economy line includes three pellet stoves, two wood stoves, and one wood-burning fireplace insert, with prices ranging from $1,100 to $1,600. Other Quadra-Fire models start at more than $2,000.

Hearth & Home also is participating in industrywide efforts to persuade state and federal lawmakers to include densified biomass, such as pellet fuel, as a renewable energy source. That would qualify pellet-burning appliances for certain incentives aimed at reducing overall carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

"We're trying to provide more education about what biomass is and how it's renewable," Brasfield says.

Other renewable energy sources that are recognized by federal and state governments include solar and wind power.

Wood pellets are made of highly compressed wood chips and sawdust that are byproducts of sawmills. Should densified biomass be recognized as a qualified energy source to be counted toward renewable energy mandates, it would provide incentives to use the fuel as an alternative to natural gas, heating oil, coal, or electrical energy generation from nonrenewable sources, he says.

Washington state could play a leading role in achieving that designation, Brasfield asserts.

"The more states get on board, the more likely it would take hold on the federal level," Brasfield says. "If densified biomass does get recognized, federal moneys will encourage more people to put pellet stoves in their homes. That should result in more sales for products manufactured at Hearth & Home's Colville and sister plants," he says.

That also could help boost interest in a line of larger heating appliances Hearth & Home is developing, Brasfield says.

"We're coming to market with new heating appliances for larger applications," he says.

The new equipment would be ideal for heating barns and bigger spaces than its residential units can heat, he says.

"It's still in the works," he says of the planned new line. "We're keeping it low key at this point."

Quadra-Fire is named for a pollutant-reducing technology that reburns gases inside the appliance, reducing emissions. It was developed and patented by Alan Trusler and Daniel Henry who founded Aladdin Steel Products Inc. in 1979.

Aladdin manufactured Quadra-Fire wood and pellet stoves in Colville until Home & Hearth acquired that company and its assets in 1998. Hearth & Home retained the Quadra-Fire name, but later dropped the Aladdin moniker, Brasfield says.

The Colville plant feeds Hearth & Home distribution centers in Allentown, Pa., Charlotte, N.C., Sacramento, Calif., and Mount Pleasant. The distribution centers, in turn, provide stock to dealers.

"Our distribution centers can get product to the dealer base within days," Brasfield says.

Under its current structure, the Colville factory can produce 130 to 170 units a day, he says.

The manufacturing process, however, is subject to seasonal cycles that peak inversely to the heating season, Brasfield says.

"One challenge we have is to run a full schedule this time of year," he says.

Brasfield says production usually is in full gear from March through October. "That's the sweet spot," he says. "We work some Fridays here and there. Then we lever down as the season winds down."

Production demand is usually lowest in January and February, Brasfield says.

The Northeast region of the U.S. accounts for the largest volume of sales, followed by the Midwest, he says.

"It declines farther West," although sales remain strong in the Pacific Northwest, Brasfield says.

"In the Northeast, a lot of people still heat with fuel oil," he says.

When fuel oil prices spike, people look for lower-cost alternatives such as wood and pellet fuel, he says.

"One of the selling points is using biomass or renewable fuel at a fraction of the cost of fuel oil," Brasfield says.

Wood stoves account for most sales, although the proportion of pellet stoves is on the rise, he says.

"There's still a lot of wood users. Wood is cheap and easy to get," Brasfield says. "People who do the grunt work probably can get it for close to free."

Pellet fuel, however can be more convenient, and pellet stoves provide more steady heat, he asserts.

In a pellet stove, an auger automatically conveys pellets to the burn pot at a rate that can be controlled by a thermostat. The auger is fed through a temporary storage container, or hopper, that usually holds enough pellets for at least a day's worth of heat.

"As folks are exposed to pellets as an alternative to even wood, we've seen growth in the sale of pellet products," Brasfield says.

A pallet—roughly a ton—of pellets is going for about $180, and a pellet stove burns about three pallets in a winter, he says.