Passion is alive and well throughout the hearth products industry, in dealers, distributors, sales reps and manufacturers – even in industry magazine editors and writers. Why else would we have so many old-timers just about refusing to leave the industry? Passion may be more rare among manufacturers because, as most companies get larger, passion seems to be replaced by acquisitions, outsiders, bean counters and the bottom line.

L to R: Paul Erickson, Founder and CEO and Shannon Sears, General Manager.

But a few manufacturers, most with long-time individual entrepreneurial ownership, have kept alive that passion for the hearth industry that made them successful. That is particularly true of Paul Erickson and his Pacific Energy Fireplace Products. Passion is such a part of the company’s culture that, even after 38 years in business, Pacific Energy’s philosophy is “Passion for Innovation.”

Town & Country on the production line.

Owner and CEO Erickson’s passion may be because he came from the same roots as many other hearth products pioneers, such as Bob Fisher of Fisher Stoves, Vern Crowley of The Earth Stove and Orley Milligan who created Orley’s. Like others during the energy crises of those early years, in 1978 Erickson used his cutting torch and welding machine to make a wood stove for himself in his basement in Duncan, British Columbia, on Canada’s Vancouver Island. As with other wood stove pioneers, friends soon asked him to build them a wood stove.

But unlike many of those pioneers, Pacific Energy has survived and thrived to grow from one basement-built wood stove to today’s multi-million dollar wood, gas and pellet stove and fireplace manufacturer selling through two-step distributors to dealers worldwide.

True to its philosophy, in 1980 Pacific Energy introduced the first glass-fronted wood stove, including an air wash and a floating firebox design. In 2002, the company introduced its Town & Country Luxury Fireplace line, the then-revolutionary, clean-faced gas fireplace. The company’s “value price point” True North brand of wood, gas and pellet stoves and inserts was introduced in 2010.

In late 2012, Pacific Energy became the master distributor for North America for the Italian-made Piazzetta brand of high-fashion, high-end pellet stoves, a relationship in which Pacific Energy now manufactures some Piazzetta models sold in Europe under the Piazzetta brand.

Passion and innovation certainly have been assets to Pacific Energy.

“We look at ourselves as a designer and manufacturer of innovative hearth products that are sold exclusively through specialty hearth dealers,” says Shannon Sears, general manager.

“We’re a company of innovation focused exclusively on hearth. Sales in 2014 were the largest in our history and, despite some softness in the fourth quarter, we improved on that in 2015. In the last three years our sales have grown 75 percent. Our business plan calls for us to grow significantly over the next three years.”

Pacific Energy plans to accomplish this goal by continued worldwide expansion and by continuing to grow market share in North America by expanding its product mix into heater-rated gas fireplaces and pellet categories, and by introducing “innovative” new products in its core wood and luxury gas business.

Headquarters of Pacific Energy.

For the last three years, Pacific Energy has enjoyed significant sales increases in its gas products, making it the company’s top growth category. Sales of its wood-burners also have increased, but that’s primarily due to new product introductions and the company’s growing international business.

Sears doesn’t consider Pacific Energy a major player in the pellet appliance business, nor in the heater-rated gas appliance category – yet.

“But we’re investing a tremendous amount into those two categories,” he says. “We certainly will be expanding our heater-rated gas appliance and pellet appliance offerings under both the Pacific Energy and True North brands, with six new gas inserts and fireplaces and six new pellet stoves and inserts this year. We see even more opportunity in our Town & Country luxury gas appliance business with the launch of our ultra luxury Prestige Series linear fireplaces, ranging from three feet to 106 feet wide.

“We’ve learned a lot in the last half-dozen years,” says Sears. “Now we’re much more focused on who our consumer is. Ten years ago we sold black stoves to men. Today, virtually 70 to 80 percent of the appliances we sell are purchased by a woman.”

Cowichan is a British Columbian native American word meaning “warm land,” and that has been very true for Pacific Energy, still headquartered in Duncan, in the Cowichan Valley about 30 miles north of Victoria, British Columbia. The company has four different facilities in the Duncan area, and 200 employees.

“I was employee number 75 four-and-a-half years ago, so we’ve really had considerable growth since then,” says Sears. “Even so, we have a very long-term work force with the average length of employment in our factory at 18 years.”

Pacific Energy facility located on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Besides Erickson and Sears, other key management includes Corey Iverson, North American Sales manager, Ian Mencies, International Sales manager, Cheryl Predy, Marketing manager and John Francisty, Technical Support and Training manager. Francisty has been with the company for 35 years. Heading up Gas Product Development is Mike Holland, and Jeff Bean heads Solid Fuel Product Development.

In addition to its factory, several warehouses and worldwide headquarters in Duncan, Pacific Energy has warehouses in Ontario, Quebec and New Hampshire. The company now markets throughout Europe, including the UK, and in Asia and the Middle East.

Pacific Energy Australia is a new distribution company 100 percent owned by the parent company. The decision to own was made due to the size of the investment required to properly service the region. That will allow the new business to grow rapidly, as all working capital is being provided by the parent company.

A local agent, Pivot Stoves & Heating, a 140-year-old former hearth manufacturer that now distributes hearth products across Australia, is managing the Australian business. Sales outside of North America now account for a “double-digit” percentage of Pacific Energy’s revenues.

“We see considerable opportunity to continue to grow this business,” according to Sears.

The Pacific Energy brand is the company’s medium-priced gas, wood and pellet, and heater-rated gas hearth appliance line. Town & Country is the company’s high-end luxury line of wood- and gas-burning decorative hearth appliances.

Fibre optic laser.

Piazzetta is also a high-end luxury line of pellet appliances produced in Italy, and now gas models produced in Duncan, a line that has “grown year over year to now represent a significant business for us,” according to Sears. The True North brand, a line of value-priced gas, pellet and wood hearth appliances, has also seen huge sales growth.

“The purpose of our True North line is to give our hearth specialty retailers a product to compete with the mass merchants. Although we’ve been given many opportunities in the mass merchant business, we have always declined. We’re 100 percent committed to the hearth specialty retailer worldwide,” says Sears.

Keeping each brand on its own individual trajectory requires that each brand have its own product development cycle, Sears explains. “We’ve had tremendous growth in our spending on engineering and research and development. This has resulted in innovative new product introductions each year, and that is going to continue. This is a tremendous commitment to the future of our industry.”

As a key part of that effort, the gas R&D department moved into a new facility three years ago, and the wood R&D moved into new facilities in 2015. Pacific Energy’s new technical support and training center opened in January, 2016.

“Our commitment to R&D is going to yield us even greater growth in the future,” according to Sears.

In-house porcelain enamel plant.

Pacific Energy’s optimism for its future is very obvious, and Sears can enumerate the reasons for that. “Our distributors and dealers are some of the most loyal in the industry,” he says. “It’s very difficult for a competitor to walk into a Pacific Energy dealer and try to flip them over.”

Sears also points out that the company is “a fully integrated manufacturer, yielding us much more total control over our product quality and costs.” Financial strength is another advantage Sears touts. “We have a diverse revenue stream, both geographically and from a product category perspective.”

He also points out the stable ownership of founder Paul Erickson. “We’re very strong financially,” he says, “and that has allowed us to grow rapidly. Paul has put in place all the pieces for this to be a great company for many, many years to come.”

Sears does not see the recent NSPS and DOE regulatory activities as being overwhelming challenges for the company. “We certainly would prefer to see these regulatory entities working in cooperation with our industry,” he says. “The approach they seem to take is to just push their regulations without necessarily having the knowledge and experience our industry has.

“However, we’re confident our company will meet the new requirements. Any time new regulations are put in place that tighten up our industry, it creates business opportunities for those who will invest.”