By LINDA LIPP, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
lindal@fwbusiness.com
With the acquisition of a new manufacturing facility and new products in the pipeline, Intek Manufacturing is building steam.
Building steam, after all, is the 3-year-old company's business. Although it has stayed below the radar in its hometown of Fort Wayne, the manufacturer of restaurant and commercial steamers has the top-rated product in its class and supplies 40 big-name restaurant chains, as well as schools, hospitals and other institutional users in the United States and Canada.
The company, which now employs 21, started in 2003 with about a dozen people.
"We even had the salesmen making the steamers," said Chip Tippmann, president and majority owner of the business.
Tippmann, who handles sales and marketing, and partner Lon Lehman, who is in charge of engineering, launched their own business after working together at Accutemp, another Fort Wayne restaurant equipment maker.
"Now we compete head to head," Tippmann said.
Intek's sales have been growing at a rate of 62 percent per year, and now that the company has established relationships and a reputation in the industry, "things are really starting to happen for us," Tippmann said.
Intek's current production capacity - about 100 commercial steamers per month - will be tripled next year when it moves into a new building at 4031 Merchant Road.
"That would give us a huge chunk of the market," Tippmann said.
The new, 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, four times the size of the current building on Independence Drive, also will give the fast-growing business room to manufacture other commercial cooking products now in the development stage.
The expansion probably will increase the company's work force, although Tippmann isn't sure how many jobs will be added or how quickly.
The company's primary product is the Xtreme Steam commercial steamer, which received the product of the year award from the Energy Foodservice Council last year.
"It's the most efficient of the efficient," Tippmann said.
The steamer cooks a higher volume of food faster, with less electricity and less water, than other steamers, according to tests done at the Pacific Gas & Electric Foodservice Technology Center in San Ramon, Calif.
That adds up to savings for restaurant owners. Depending on use, the $5,000 steamers can pay for themselves in as little as a year.
Restaurant chains and franchises using the steamers include Applebee's, Golden Corrall and Bandido's.
The Xtreme Steam steamer made its debut at the annual restaurant industry trade show in Chicago in May 2003, and the 30 to 40 trade shows the company hits each year are still its key avenue for marketing the product.
Schools and other institutions are an important secondary market.
"We don't have to sell individual steamers there. They test steamers, and as usually happens, they pick ours, so we get a lot of repeat business," Tippmann said.
The stainless-steel components of the steamers - most of which are made by Nelson Machining and Fabricating in Huntington - arrive at Intek's manufacturing plant laser cut and ready to assemble.
Although 16 to 20 models are kept in stock, "we essentially build them to order," Lehman said. New units can be turned around in as little as a day.
About the same size as a large dorm refrigerator, the steamers each weigh 170 pounds and can be mounted on custom-made stands or placed on a countertop.
Intek also sells giant tilt kettles and skillets, which are made in Toronto. The gas-powered kettles can cook anywhere from six to 100 gallons of soup or stew at once. An easy-to-operate crank allows the 700-pound kettle to be tipped to pour its contents into smaller containers for serving or storing the food.
Intek recently purchased a robot that will be installed at its new plant to perform welding tasks. The new plant will require few renovations for the manufacturing process, but will be remodeled to create an office area.