Amidst the cows, goats and sheep of Scott Willis’ sleepy farm on Manitoulin Island, you’ll find welding tools, drill presses and corrugated steel, all part of a growing multi-fuel stove manufacturing business.
In fact, between maintaining the livestock and various grain crops as well as his two young sons, the Spring Bay resident combines a farmer’s lifestyle with that of a small business owner.
“There’s never a dull moment around here, that’s for sure,” Willis says.
Willis is the third owner of the company known as Sedore Multi-Fuel Stoves, named after Ernest Sedore, a Southern Ontario inventor who created the unique stove in the 1970s. Sedore passed the business onto a southern Ontario couple, Bob and Sharron Reive, many years later, though Bob’s death put the company in jeopardy.
After having purchased a Sedore stove of his own nearly a decade prior, Willis traveled to see Sharron to pick up some replacement parts three years ago. When the widow offered Willis the opportunity to buy the business, he laughed; by the time he returned home, he changed his mind and decided to make a go of it.
Since then, he’s brought in all manner of equipment, from steelworking devices to various painting and finishing tools, and has been working to rebuild the knowledge lost upon Bob Reive’s death.
Now in its third year, Willis’ company is primarily a one-man operation, as he mostly works solo to create stoves that are sold all across Canada, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.
Despite its short business life, the company has already been nominated for a Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence, which could carry an award as high as $100,000, with 55 smaller regional awards of $5,000.
This kind of honor provides some comfort to Willis as he toils away in his workshop, where he can create a single unit in two days, or 20 hours, though his father-in-law occasionally lends a hand whenever necessary.
A second employee will be brought on in the coming season to help cope with rising demand for the product, which has grown to roughly 25 units per year.
Currently, Willis mills and re-works the majority of the material, with only 20 per cent of the necessary parts being handled by outside contractors. In time, the company may acquire the 150-ton press required to do the work itself, Willis says.
The three types of stoves being built to heat 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 foot-spaces respectively are top-loading steel devices. They feature a special construction allowing for long burning periods involving various biomass-style fuels.
This means that any number of wood-based products, from shavings to paper and cardboard, can be used in addition to the standard wood logs. What’s more, it can also make use of a variety of other organic sources, such as grain and corn, meaning that waste or spoiled material can be put to use.
This system has proven to be particularly attractive for farmers and manufacturers alike, as the stove can make use of otherwise troublesome process waste. He points to an Alberta wood processor who recently purchased a unit to help manage the wealth of sawdust being produced at the plant by using it as heating fuel.
Similarly, a chicken farmer south of Buffalo previously had to pay to have barrels of unusable chicken parts removed and disposed; now, he blends them with bedding material for use in the stove.
The design could also allow for even less conventional fuels, including horse manure and bones from wild game, though Willis says he can’t suggest it until it’s been tested thoroughly.
The stove’s design means there are no augurs, fans or blowers which require electricity, while heat is radiated from the stove’s sides, rather than its top.
What’s more, virtually no particulate matter escapes via the chimney. Alongside other factors, this means the mid-sized unit can produce up to 14 hours of heat on a load of hardwood, while the largest can run for up to 24 hours.
Willis anticipates being able to ramp up sales numbers considerably once he manages to establish more connections with dealers and slowly grows the business.
The previous owners were able to ramp up sales to nearly 300 units per year at their peak, Willis says; with four dealers in Ontario and others in various provinces looking to sign on, he expects his own numbers to rise within three years.
In that time, he anticipates hiring six more employees, and expanding his own workspace beyond its existing walls.
“If things move on like they should, it could be something really good for the Manitoulin Island,” Willis says.
