100 Years and still cooking

Two historic events—the introduction of foundry seasoned cast iron cookware and the recent expansion of our foundry—represent dynamic examples of Lodge Manufacturing Company’s century-plus commitment to product innovation and investment in new equipment and technologies.

Seasoned cast iron propelled Lodge from the position of a regional manufacturer to the national stage, with Good Housekeeping presenting a “Good Buy” Award for the product enhancement. Our appearance on the national stage expanded throughout the first decade of the new century, with record sales leading Lodge to the largest expansion in our history.

While we are proud of our recent history, there is a backstory. So travel with us to the small town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee at the end of the 19th Century. Nestled at the base of the Appalachian Mountain’s Cumberland Plateau and on the banks of the Tennessee River, the town was abuzz with new opportunities.

In 1896 Joseph Lodge began a cast iron foundry, named in honor of his minister, Rev. Joseph Hayden Blacklock. Family owned, our origins were humble and our products varied, from stoves, to skillets and kitchen sinks.

As each decade passed, Lodge developed a business model to continually update and improve equipment and foundry practices. Work was labor intensive, with all of our cookware poured and cleaned by hand.

The 1950s saw the installation new molding machinery, mechanized sand delivery systems, the construction of a gas fired aluminum furnace to cast patterns for the production of sand mold impressions and a machine to clean castings.

When the introduction of new cookware metals and coatings increased competition in the 1960s, Lodge countered with a Disamatic automatic molding machine. Two years later, Lodge added an electric furnace to operate the Disamatic molding and pouring system, outpacing the capacity of the coke-fired cupola, at lower cost.

The Clean Water and Air Acts of 1970 led American companies to install new equipment to meet the pollution control laws. Lodge accepted the standards by replacing the old electric furnaces and adding a second Disamatic molding machine.

Not only did the updates meet the requirements of the Clean Air and Water legislation, by 1976 our automated processes produced as many molds in an hour as one man’s daily productivity 30 years earlier.

With the switch from antiquated electric furnaces to more efficient induction furnaces, 1991 proved to be a pivotal juncture in the green standards of Lodge Manufacturing Company. The use of magnetic energy to produce heat changed our status from a Large Quantity Generator of Hazardous Waste to a Small Quantity Generator, and we received the 1994 Tennessee Governor’s Award for Excellence in Hazardous Waste Reduction.

Today, Lodge Manufacturing Company maintains a zero hazardous waste stream foundry, earning accolades from the environmental and manufacturing communities.

Eleven years after in the introduction of seasoned cast iron cookware, Lodge broke ground for our foundry expansion. With completion of the first phase in the fall of 2014, the expansion includes a new melt system, an additional pouring/molding line and most importantly—new American jobs!

In more ways than he could have ever imagined, Joseph Lodge would not recognize the business he started over a century ago. Lodge continues to be family owned and we are the sole manufacturer of cast iron cookware in US, producing over 120 different foundry seasoned cast iron items for worldwide gourmet, outdoor and restaurant markets.

More importantly, Lodge Manufacturing Company is universally accepted as the world leader in the cast iron cookware category.