Harman Stove Co. bought by Large conglomerate - HHT

[webbie]

http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/216403.html

Hearth & Home Technologies Inc. said Tuesday is has agreed to buy Pennsylvania-based Harman Stove Co. for nearly $29.8 million.

Hearth & Home, a division of Muscatine-based HNI Corp., is a leading producer and installer of hearth products. Its brands include Heatilator and Heat & Glo.

 

[elkimmeg]

Well Web is this good for Harman? We have seen other buyouts, that milked the quality name and diminished the product quality.. Other buyouts that forced a company into
bankruptcy.. Might as well note that Jotul has been sold / acquired also .

 

[Mike Wilson]

I wonder where Dane Harman is retiring to? I'm willing to bet its somewhere that burning anything other than Rum is not required to provide heat.



-- Mike

 

[Metal]

"Its brands include Heatilator and Heat & Glo." Not to mention Quadra-Fire, which manufactures corn/pellet stoves as well.

 

[webbie]

Harman is one of the last "family owned" companies in the biz to go "corporate". The reason (my guess) is that it is almost impossible for an individual to finance themselves once they grow big. So I think Dane had a choice (years ago)....either stay with limited production (you might have to wait 6 months for a stove), or to grow. He choose the second, and next thing you know he needed to come up with tens of millions of dollars - keep in mind that a manufacturer has to finance their dealers....often for many months.

From what I hear, Dane will probably be under contract for a long time...and working in R&D;, etc. - Personally, if and when I cashed out, I would want some REAL flexibility, but who knows....Dane probably enjoys this, and the money thing will be a load off his shoulders.

Jotul has been bought and sold numerous times over the years, but it tends to happen in the background since it was almost always a divisions of a larger company....I think part of Norcem (cement) at one time. I think this company has actually done the opposite - gone from larger owners to smaller ones....I think the North American operation (and maybe even some of the European) is owned by folks who work there (the Prez, etc).....which is good overall for biz.

As to the changes at Harman being good or bad, time will tell. At least they should have money to finance growth. On the other side of the coin, large corporate interests tend to think less about keeping everyone employed, etc, etc.

 

[Metal]

Here is an excerpt from their HD Disclosure:

"Under the Agreement, HHT will pay consideration of $29,750,000 in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and assume certain leases, purchase money security interests and accruals. The Agreement also provides for a contingent future payment by HHT to Harman should the acquired business achieve certain financial targets. HHT will not assume any of Harman's liabilities to Harman's general creditors."

So it sounds like Dane might make a few more bucks if things go well. That might be the impetus behind him staying.

 

[elkimmeg]

Well it might end the quadra-fire Harman pellet stove debates. I wonder what the consolidation final product line will look like

Will they continue 2 top loader wood stoves the Oakwood and the Island Royal?

 

[BrotherBart]

Harman becomes an HNI company. Oh the conjecture. I see a new smoker coming out based on my design since HNI is a major maker of filing cabinets.

"Announcing the Harman/HON Four Drawer Smoker- The new ExceptiHON meat smoke combines a top loading After Burner firebox with the time tested design of HON filing cabinets."

 

[webbie]

An interesting fact is that Quad shut down production and laid off factory workers earlier this year (in Wash.) - So now they are taking on 300,000 sq ft of production space and hundreds of additional employees? But, hey, they are probably a lot smarter than I am....so maybe they know what they are doing.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Harman becomes an HNI company. Oh the conjecture. I see a new smoker coming out based on my design since HNI is a major maker of filing cabinets.

"Announcing the Harman/HON Four Drawer Smoker- The new ExceptiHON meat smoke combines a top loading After Burner firebox with the time tested design of HON filing cabinets."

i thought you had the patent on the 4 drawer smoker?

 

[BrotherBart]

Harman becomes an HNI company. Oh the conjecture. I see a new smoker coming out based on my design since HNI is a major maker of filing cabinets.

"Announcing the Harman/HON Four Drawer Smoker- The new ExceptiHON meat smoke combines a top loading After Burner firebox with the time tested design of HON filing cabinets."

i thought you had the patent on the 4 drawer smoker?

My lawyer is laying in wait. Since he is a lawyer he is probably lieing in wait.

 

[jtp10181]

We got an email about this yesterday... I didn't realize it was public. Very cool I think. I hope we can use it to expand our product lineup at our store. Since we are a HHT store we can only offer HHT products.

I'll keep people informed of info that's public, if I can tell if it is or not.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

i just hope that the harmon quality is kept at the standard Dane and his group have already set which IMHO is quite high, one of the most respected names in the industry (not a bad indorsement from a fellow manufacturer) and i truly hope that Dane and his family come out of this in the best way also. they have been friends of the boss for quite some time and from what i hear from him they are terriffic people. Hopefully this deal will work out well for all involved.

 

[jackiec]

Has anyone been keeping tabs on Harman Stove's quality and reliability since being bought out? Does anyone know of any changes? I would be very interested in knowing if Quadrafire has tried to address the Accentra insert loud fan noise, or if they have any plans to do so. I would think that if the Accentra's noise problem was solved, it would be hard to beat.