This Skillet Company Has Been Owned by the Same Family for 130 Years: ‘We Want to Be That Indie Band Who Never Sells Out’
The Lodge family has kept their cast-iron dynasty in the family for six generations, but it hasn’t always been smooth cooking.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Lodge Cast Iron’s annual shareholder meeting doubles as a family reunion, three generations of Lodges, from a 2-year-old to an 88-year-old, gathered in Chattanooga this June for the skillet company their family has owned since 1896, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company almost fried in 1996, when then-COO Henry Lodge privately worried the business might go bankrupt. But a turnaround came in 2002, when Lodge figured out how to pre-season its pans so customers could use them straight out of the box, no more peeling wax and baking for hours first. The 2008 financial crisis and 2020 pandemic both boosted demand as more people cooked at home, and revenue has grown more than tenfold since 2002.
Today Lodge employs about 570 people and is run by its first-ever nonfamily CEO, Mike Otterman, hired in 2018. “We want to be that indie band who never sells out,” Otterman said. About 150 family members now hold shares, restricted so they can only be transferred within the family.
Lodge Cast Iron’s annual shareholder meeting doubles as a family reunion, three generations of Lodges, from a 2-year-old to an 88-year-old, gathered in Chattanooga this June for the skillet company their family has owned since 1896, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company almost fried in 1996, when then-COO Henry Lodge privately worried the business might go bankrupt. But a turnaround came in 2002, when Lodge figured out how to pre-season its pans so customers could use them straight out of the box, no more peeling wax and baking for hours first. The 2008 financial crisis and 2020 pandemic both boosted demand as more people cooked at home, and revenue has grown more than tenfold since 2002.
Today Lodge employs about 570 people and is run by its first-ever nonfamily CEO, Mike Otterman, hired in 2018. “We want to be that indie band who never sells out,” Otterman said. About 150 family members now hold shares, restricted so they can only be transferred within the family.
