Local Company Creates Wood Pellet Grills
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This week is the biggest grilling week in the country: just about everyone fires up a grill for the Fourth of July.
We found a local company that's really come up with a cool product, and they're making Grills right here in Minnesota. The name on the grill says Memphis, but this baby is born in a steel fabrication plant in Bloomington.
"Everything starts as a flat sheet, and on the other end it's in a box and ready to go to consumers," said Bob Borgerding, the general manager of Heartland Products.
"In here we do the research and development testing and lab tests. We have multiple grills running," he said.
Their Memphis BBQ Grills use wood pellets. You set the temperature digitally, and the pellets and fans combine to heat it up.
"It's pretty sophisticated, thousands of hours of research and development. The performance is excellent," Borgerding said.
The technology here is so cool: It landed Memphis Wood Fire Grills on the pages of next month's Wired Magazine. This steel plant was worried that too much of the work they were doing for others was being shipped overseas, so they decided to start fabricating their own product.
Some of the parts are hand formed. It's all made in Minnesota from Chris at the press brake to the final product. It's easier to control than a gas grill with the flavor of a wood fire.
It's a premium product: The entry level starts around $1,400, but built-in grills can go up to $4,000.
