W.C. Bradley Co. is a name that people may not be familiar with, but they certainly have heard of their brands. It’s the most impressive grill portfolio of any company, with something for everyone. They own Charbroil, Oklahoma Joe’s, Saber, and more recently Pit Boss and Louisiana Grills. They also own great outdoor lifestyle brands like TIKI and Badlands.
The person that’s successfully driven the strategy of the grill brands is Group President, Tom Penner. I caught up with him about how the brands have continued to evolve over the years to meet the changing needs of the consumer and how they’ll continue to do that.
History of Innovation at Charbroil
The largest and most historic grill brand under the W.C. Bradley umbrella is Charbroil. To understand the founding values of Charbroil, you have to go back even further in history to 1885. That’s when W.C. Bradley Co. was founded in Columbus, Georgia, and where they still are headquartered.
It isn’t just a place that W.C. Bradley operates a business either, they’re part of the community. Outside of their grill businesses they have a number of real estate developments that have continued to transform the area.
Charbroil does go back to 1948. It was founded here in Columbus, Georgia. Really some entrepreneurs who are looking for new markets because of manufacturing capabilities that the W.C. Bradley company had. So, it’s been owned and operated by W.C. Bradley for its entire lifespan. It’s been based here in Columbus the whole time.
And if you look at the history of Charbroil, the dominant thing you’ll see, Wes, is the amount of innovation. First to really have a portable grill, first with an electric grill, first with [a] tailgating [grill], a leader in the gas grills.
All those different areas, there’s been innovation. New products have been a consistent theme with Charbroil through all those years, in addition to obviously quality and really paying attention to the consumer experience.
We are privately held. Our parent company has values that extend into Charbroil about giving the consumer a great experience, giving them great value, thinking about quality, safety, performance, all those different areas, and then ultimately being a great partner with customers and retailers. that’s been a consistent theme for Charbroil.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Like with any company that’s been around for as long as Charbroil, there have been many changes through the years. Change is essential to be competitive in the business environment and, more importantly, to meet the needs of the consumer.
The manufacturing has changed so significantly over the years. It was originally domestic. It’s moved abroad. Now we see with resilient supply chains and with a lot of the other initiatives, we’re thinking differently about supply chains and moving them closer, trying to be on shore and working with all the freight challenges and the other geopolitical challenges.
So that’s a big change. lastly, as you know, the retail environment has changed so significantly, where there were big players in the category just 10 or 20 years ago that are no longer major players, and now so much more information is online, so much more of the shopping starts online.
We see about 85% of consumer grill purchases start online. They gather information, and Most of them end up in a retail store, But a lot of them purchase online.
[the consumer] uses that information to shop and to make their selection before they go in the stores.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Beyond how grills are manufactured and sold, how they’re used has also dramatically changed.
now, at this point, and I think this is really important for what we’re going to talk about, we’re seeing that consumer shift quite a bit; how they cook, the meals they prepare, the diversity of food, if you will, the different generations cooking in different ways.
Even within a household, most families 20-25 years ago, they prepared one meal, and everybody, ate that meal. Now, we’re really seeing through research that consumers will make a different meal for one child or someone maybe has limitations on their diet, so they’ll be more sensitive to that and make different meals. So, that variety is really important with the American household right now.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
I can relate to that theme as a parent of two young children. Some days I don’t want the time and struggle of getting them out of their narrow culinary comfort zone. With a product like Charbroil’s Performance Series griddle, I can cook burgers for my wife and myself, then use the other half of the griddle for pancakes for the kids.
It’s the same thing with the do-it-all Charbroil Commercial Series gas grill. It can grill hot and fast with gas, or you can swap out some of the grates for a griddle. Want some smokey flavor on your food? It can do that too by burning charcoal in the gas grill. It lets you cook any food with a multitude of cooking tools.
The versatility and variety in cooking isn’t limited to the Charbroil brand either. Oklahoma Joe’s is another brand where that focus is clear through their latest offerings.
Oklahoma Joe’s is most known for their traditional offset smokers, but the new Tahoma changes that and brings the brand to more people. The Tahoma is a charcoal smoker that has a controller, so you just set the temperature and it does all the hard work for you.
Oklahoma Joe’s will also bring, in different ways, the ability for consumers to easily and in a variety of ways cook different foods. the new Oklahoma Joe’s Tahoma is one of those examples where it gives you the ability to quickly get your charcoal or wood chunks lit and either cook it slow and long at 225 degrees for 13 hours or cook at 600 degrees. It’ll get to 600 degrees in 25 minutes, which gives you just that variety of cooking styles, whether it’s a quick evening meal during the week or whether I want to do a long smoking on the weekend. It gives you that variety. So, we see that broad consumer trend as an opportunity for all of our brands.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Dansons Acquisition
W.C. Bradley had a big addition to their grill portfolio when they acquired Dansons last year. Dansons owns a variety of brands, including Pit Boss and Louisiana Grills. It was an acquisition that made a lot of sense and gave W.C. Bradley the most comprehensive outdoor cooking portfolio of any company.
First of all, they were family-owned and operated. They shared many of the same values and go-to-market principles that we have in our organization. So, it was a really good fit between the two organizations.
Second of all, they are very strong in the pellet industry, one of the fastest-growing, best-performing pellet companies in our industry. That is not a segment that we are strong in. We’re strong in gas and charcoal, and some other segments, so naturally the product lines fit together.
And third of all, when we look at the customer base, we have a shared strength with good, strong customers, such as Lowe’s, Academy, Walmart. So, there’s an opportunity there for us to be a better supplier to those customers.
So, if you look at all those elements, it was a really good fit. And over time, we found that it’s actually a better fit than we thought at the time when we made the acquisition. So, we see a lot of upside for the next couple of years working together and growing the segment together, the category together.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Beyond their pellet grill business, Dansons also owns a number of other companies. They have some of the largest cooking pellet production capacity of any manufacturer. They also have brands outside of outdoor cooking like Surelock, a brand that makes safes.
In all strategic acquisitions, there’s learning process to see what ultimately makes sense for the combined entity. W.C. Bradley already has a diverse portfolio of companies, so they’re not opposed to widening their offerings if it serves retailers and consumers.
the Danson’s business is 25 years old. It was founded 25 years ago and has, in those 25 years, an amazing entrepreneurial track record. A lot of different segments, different products, different areas. You know, being very, if you will, flexible and agile to develop products and move them.
That is consistent with W.C. Bradley and our history as well. We have that same over the years, had a history of doing a lot of good entrepreneurial ventures. So, all those have been in their own way successful in their own segments. We’ll continue to look at those, but we do span the whole backyard, right? Our Tiki brand is a leader in outdoor heating and lighting and the outdoor living space. We have Char-Broil now, Pit Boss, and we continue to look at how all of the products fit together and give consumers great experience. So, as long as there’s that great quality and we keep servicing the retailer in the right way, we enjoy having a house of brands and bringing those to retailers.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
One area that Pit Boss in particular excels at is making retail exclusive pellet grills. They have the capability to work with a retailer to make a unique offering. A good example of this is the Titan pellet grill that they developed with Academy Sports, which features some of the best pellet grill tech.
Pit Boss does an excellent job with the collections. Titan, Austin, those collections with the key retailers, setting them up, helping to differentiate, if you will, the pellet offering between the different retailers, they do an excellent job.
We have, with our commercial series, for example, at Lowe’s, had collections that have been winners, and we continue to move those forward. You will see that trend continue in the marketplace by more and more competitors will start to move towards those collections to mirror some of that success that Pit Boss has had. we continue to look at what our options are around collections for different retailers as well.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Brand Refresh
Anyone that follows Charbroil (notice it’s not Char-Broil anymore) probably has noticed that they’re grills are starting to look a little different over the past year. In a sea of black and red, they’ve introduced a much more modern color scheme.
The Commercial Series is a perfect example of a grill with their refreshed design. The lines on it are sleek, the side shelves and structural components all blend together, and the color palette is eye-catching.
Both, the brand shift, if you will, or refresh, and the product line bringing more versatility, bringing more variety of cooking styles that you were mentioning, those two things go together.
So, the intent and where our focus is is around those consumers that want more variety in their cooking, that are being more progressive in not only what they cook, but how often they cook and the different types of food.
the branding was intended to reach a new audience, to bring people back into the CharBroil fold who maybe thought of us in one way and now we bring a lot more variety.
Part of our portfolio right now, Wes, reflects that new vision with performance griddles, with the commercial series, the pro series. You’re going to see the rest of the portfolio move in that direction as well, both from a branding standpoint, from a visual standpoint, and from a performance and capability standpoint.
the intent there is to reach a younger audience, to bring more consumers, even females, into that cooking experience, but to give them flexibility and the versatility so they can easily and conveniently cook anything they want. you see that with, for example, the commercial series. Our other product lines will bring more versatility as they refresh for next year as well.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
A brand refresh for a company that’s 75-years old with a passionate following is a long process. They have to carefully stay true to their history while also making the right changes to have it appeal to a diverse customer base.
It’s a long process And you have to be very careful because the brand refreshes, you do very infrequently, right? Our last one was a little bit of a brand refresh in 2017, but before that had been basically 20 years, right? And that’s pretty common in the brand world to go those long stages between brand overhauls. So, it’s very careful, a lot of research, a lot of iteration, looking at the options, getting in front of consumers. What really resonated? What were they looking for from CharBroil, and then also, what was a pleasant surprise?
So going through that process, we had not only the variable [Advertising agency], but we have a range of great partners that we work with that work with us. But our internal team really drove the research, they drove the design work, and they’re the ones that have been leading the product and the portfolio overhaul to make it all marry up.
We enjoy having those experts and those outside parties like the Variable help us. But our focus really is, let’s learn from the consumer, whether it’s an internal team or internal and external, let’s learn from the consumer and let’s really design for what that consumer needs so that we resonate with the consumer.
And that happens, you know, it’s rare that you get to do that with a brand. It’s frequent that you get to do it with products. So, we’re more frequent with products. we took that brand work and took a lot of time to develop it, And then the products naturally started to fall in line coming out of that work.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
I personally really like what Charbroil has done with their brand refresh. More importantly though, they’re receiving positive feedback from retailers and consumers.
We’ve had great feedback from our retail partners. They’re really excited about giving the consumers a choice when they walk into a retail environment.
We’re also getting really strong, positive support from winning awards, from design houses, and ultimately from the activity we’re seeing from consumers online, and the feedback we’re getting from those consumers when they see the brand and use the product. They’re really excited about the direction CharBroil’s going. at this point, we’re six months into it. We believe that everything is pointed in a positive direction for CharBroil.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Electric Grills
One area that W.C. Bradley is a clear leader and innovator is with grilling. They launched a new electric grill brand called Current Backyard at CES this year, where it was an Innovation Award honoree.
The Current Backyard Model G is an evolution of a previous innovation from Charbroil, the EDGE. They took a grill that was already ahead of what was on the market in terms of grilling experience, and added another cooking zone and smart features.
Today, the electric segment is very small, And that is really driven because nobody has had a grill that’s performed well with a standard outlet. as we were doing research with consumers, a lot is work we’ve been doing over the last few years, What really stood out were the segment of consumers that didn’t have either an option to have a traditional grill on a patio or an apartment or in certain locations where they’re starting to prohibit open flame. so, they still wanted a great cooking experience. That was one group.
And the other group was they wanted more technology, they wanted to be on the leading edge of their experiences. so, they were looking for new fuel, new factors. And both of those, we were able to reach with our new Current product line, which is a grill that performs equal to a gas grill with a 110 outlet and lets the consumer through a connected experience, through the variety of cooking forms and through dual zones, for example, with our grill, to get the same experience they would have with a gas grill, but they can do it with the electric form.
consumers also are playing back that there are a lot of, we’ll call it the younger generations, that don’t understand that the challenge is obviously technical, but they think it’s an obvious solution. They look for those types of solutions.
that’s why we see Current as an entirely new brand and a new opportunity. how do you bring in those new generations to cooking? How do you reach those consumers that maybe don’t have the usual backyard space or opportunity for cooking, but still want great flavor, want to be able to cook fast, convenient meals? that’s why we started up that brand and we’re going to them with the different outlets, with a different offering, with a different experience. But it meets what they’re looking for in the backyard cooking space.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.
Current Backyard is really a different kind of company with what they’re bringing to the market. Both in terms of technology and how they’re trying to bring new people to grilling.
Future
Covid had a huge impact outdoor cooking, it created extreme growth and an equally large pullback. It also brought new cooking products like pellet grills and griddles into the mainstream.
W.C. Bradley Co.’s collection of brands have continued to evolve with the consumer. It’s what has kept them at the forefront of grilling for decades. As can be expected, there’s lots more innovation on the way.
Wes, we have so much coming because with COVID, with how the market changed and not only the consumer, but also just in the retail environment and the buying habits. We’ve been spending the last few years doing a lot of research and innovation work, and now we’re starting to bring that to market.
So, over the next three or four years, you’ll continue to see a great stream of innovation from us across our brands and really gear towards learning from those consumers and trying to improve the products as we bring them to market. So even if we launch one product this year, you should expect to see improvements and innovations around that product in future years as well.
Tom Penner, Group President – Outdoor Cooking at W.C. Bradley Co.