If you have ever hiked in Jotunheimen, a mountain range where the summits soar 6,000 feet or more above sea level and the weather changes on irrational whims year round, you have conquered the home of the Jøtuls, giant trolls who claim Jotunheimen, which translates to "house of the giants," their home. In this National Park 560 miles north of Oslo, like many other places in Norway, nature’s beauty far exceeds its kindness.
News of Norway, issue 7, 1997
Norway is known for her cold winters, so back in the old days a good wood stove and some Norwegian logs were necessities to keep warm through the long, dark winter months. The more heat generated, the better the stoves were regarded, and one line of cast-iron stoves became known as little heating giants and thus were called Jøtul.
The history of the company began in 1853 when Oluf Adelsten founded Kvemer Brug, an iron foundry. Over 140 years later, Jøtul is the world’s oldest and largest producer of cast-iron stoves. From the manufacturing factory in Fredrikstad, around 80,000 stoves are made each year intended for its international market of over 30 countries. About 10 percent is sold on the American and Canadian market.
Since 1853, the company has had several owners and names, the Jøtul name entering in 1917. Today the company is traded at the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The company which handles the American and Canadian import and marketing of Jøtul stoves today is Jøtul USA, Inc. This subsidiary company of Jøtul Fredrikstad was founded in 1980. The current president is Eivind Lindqvist, a Norwegian from Bærum who took over in 1993. Lindqvist said that an upgrade of the product line and sales strategy has contributed to the company’s success in the U.S. over the past five years. Just from 1992 to last year, the sale increased by 500 percent and by the time 1998 rolls around this number is expected to be 900 percent, increasing last year's sale from 8,000 stoves to between 12,000 and 13,000 stoves this year, according to Lindqvist.
But how has this little giant kept burning for almost 150 years? Maybe the answer can be found within the product itself. The stove is assembled as a car, meaning that if something breaks, then new parts can substitute old and broken ones. "As long as you have parts, the stove can last forever," Lindqvist said.
Another special feature is that the Jøtul stoves are recycled products. The stoves are produced from scrap iron obtained from railway material, old engines, etc. "There are certain things that cannot be used, but the product is mainly a recycled product," Lindqvist said. "The stoves begin as scrap, become beautiful stoves, and can be recycled again." The final result is the same as when the stoves were made from pig iron in the early days when no scrap iron could be obtained. "It wouldn’t have been any better if pig iron had been used," Lindqvist said. Using cast iron as opposed to steel also gives the designers an artistic freedom to mold stoves decorated with ornaments.
A major factor in the large sales in the United States has been the upgrading process. Though drawn by Norwegian designers, the stoves on the U.S. market has a more distinct New England colonial style to better match American tastes. Another contributing factor is the development of the Jøtul gas stove which hit the market in 1995. "Today, this product is responsible for half our sale," said Lindqvist. "To be marketable in the U.S. one has to have gas stoves." More stoves are scheduled to be available in gas versions, with the Firelight Gas being launched next year.
But the heating giant first to reach the U.S. was a far cry from today’s remote controlled gas stoves. The first import started with the immigrants who brought their own stoves from Norway. According to Lindqvist there was also a moderate import and sale of Jøtul stoves in New York back in 1926. It wasn’t until a Norwegian teacher, housewife and mother of three, Eva Horton, got into the business that things really started to happen.
Her business started as a quest to give her children the best wood heating available. From her own childhood, Horton remembered the economic stoves that one didn’t have to get up and stoke in the middle of the night.
Horton’s parents offered to send over a Jøtul #602 for the Horton vacation farm. The little heating giant came in 1970 and the following fall Horton went to talk to the Jøtul Board of Directors and returned with the Jøtul franchise for the 28 states east of Mississippi. Later, she got the franchise for the whole country.
The first stock of 250 stoves reached Portland Christmas Eve of 1973. With the oil shortage, the popularity of the stoves increased, and Horton’s company called Kristia Associates became a million dollar business. Horton sold her company back to Jøtul in 1980.
Looking back, Horton said, "The Jøtul years were seven intense years where I worked eight days a week, 25 hours a day."
The Jøtul headquarters is still in Portland. Today the stoves are shipped to Boston and then transported up to Portland where they are distributed to U.S. warehouses in Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Canadian locations in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Jøtul stoves can be found in 600 specialty dealers around the U.S. and 170 specialty dealers in Canada. According to Lindqvist, the company is represented in all states, including Hawaii.
The Jøtul stoves have certainly received a new life and appearance here in America. Whereas the stoves were initially brought over and imported as a utility, today they are often regarded as furniture. General Manager Paul Bartlett at Fireplace Village in Bedford, N.H., has been dealing Jøtul stoves for sixteen years. He works for Brian Connolly who has sold Jøtul stoves for 22 years and now owns seven stores around New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
For many of the customers, the purchase of a stove is no longer prompted by the need to heat a house. It is more a desire to enjoy fire. Before people would find a stove that fit the house, now I see people building a room around the stove, said Bartlett. The houses today compared to the old houses in Norway have more open room, and the object is to heat one open space where they spend a lot of time, he added.
For more information about Jøtul and Jøtul products contact:
Jøtul USA, Inc., 400 Riverside St., Portland, Maine 04104.
Ph.: (207)797-5912.
http://www.hearth.com/jotul/