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Lamppa Manufacturing named best small family business – Duluth News Tribune
TOWER – Four generations of family ownership have grown the legacy of Lamppa Manufacturing in a small northern Minnesota town.
What started as a side hustle for CEO Garrett Lamppa’s great-grandfather, Richard Lamppa, is now being distributed across the globe, earning recognition from the U.S. Small Business Administration as Minnesota Small Family Business of the Year.
Garrett Lamppa is CEO of Lamppa Manufacturing in Tower.
Contribution / Lamppa Manufacturing
“What makes it special to me is that it really recognizes our entire family,” Garrett said. “It’s really cool to see where we started and how far we’ve come.”
The company that makes wood-burning stoves and sauna stoves Kuuma recently moved to a larger facility and increased its workforce to increase production.
The original small team of four skilled employees produced an average of 100 sauna stoves and up to 50 ovens per year. After scaling to a team of 18, Lamppa has sold around 650 sauna stoves and over 100 ovens
during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lamppa Manufacturing operated in the former Tower Creamery building until moving to the industrial park in 2020.
Bob King/Duluth Media Group Archive
Since the pandemic, production has moved to a four-day work week, Monday through Thursday, except for the office, which is open until Friday, and optional overtime.
With a population of less than 500 people, the family operation is vital to the Tower community’s economy.
“It’s one thing if you’re bringing jobs in hospitality and tourism and other seasonal things, but we’re providing quality year-round jobs with benefits here,” Garrett said. “An industry job that pays off working Monday to Thursday – you can have a good work-life balance.”
Dale Horihan, general manager of Lamppa Manufacturing, talks about the new building they were able to move into in Tower and how it has enabled significant growth in the wood stove and sauna stove business.
Clint Austin / Archive / Duluth Media Group
The newly constructed facility located at 9501 Minnesota Highway 135 was
between Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation and Tower Economic Development Association. It’s roughly four times the size of Lamppa’s previous store in the city’s former dairy factory.
“From our production area and equipment to the materials we use now – everything has changed in our operation,” said Garrett. “It’s been challenging and rewarding.”
Adam Schroeder of Tower uses a tap drill to add steps to the supports of Kuuma sauna stoves at Lamppa Manufacturing in Tower.
Clint Austin / Archive / Duluth Media Group
Most of Lamppa’s stoves and saunas are shipped direct from the factory, as the company currently doesn’t have the margins to go the dealer route, Garrett said.
Forty percent of the ovens manufactured by Lamppa are shipped to customers on the East Coast, where hardwoods are abundant. Seventy-five percent of its saunas are shipped to repeat customers in Canada and occasionally around the world to places like Argentina, Ireland, Australia, Great Britain, Finland and South America.
More locally, their saunas can be found at Larsmont Cottages along the north coast.
Richard Lamppa began creating sauna stoves for friends and family in the early 20th century.
Contribution / Lamppa Manufacturing
It all started during the Great Depression when Richard Lamppa worked as a blacksmith for the Works Progress Administration’s labor program. On the side, he sold sauna stoves made from 30-gallon oil drums to friends and neighbors in the Embarrass region, where many Finnish and Scandinavian immigrants settled.
In an excerpt from a remembrance provided by Richard’s son Herbert in
He states: “I clearly remember how many hours I had to stay there, cranking the coal forge blower.”
The “Sweat King” was the original creation of Lamppa Manufacturing founder Richard Lamppa.
Contribution / Lamppa Manufacturing
An original sauna stove nicknamed “Sweat King” that Richard built in the 1930s is now on display in the new lobby. It serves as a physical reminder of the Finnish concept, “sisu,” which means strength and perseverance in the face of adversity.
“I see a lot of that in my dad, from him developing our products and even running the business,” Garrett said. “It took a lot of effort to get this business to where it was.”
As a skilled welder, Garrett’s father, Daryl Lamppa, has made additional improvements to the stoves over the years. To his knowledge, Lamppa now manufactures the cleanest-burning, most efficient wood-fired oven ever evaluated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Daryl Lamppa talks passionately about his Kuuma wood-fired ovens.
Bob King / Archive / Duluth Media Group
The prototypes would be tested in the garage of Garrett’s grandfather, Herbert “Herbie” Lamppa, while he helped develop the product. It was here that they invented the Kuuma 1 stove design, which was demonstrated in “open garage” experiments.
After receiving several initial orders for stoves, word of mouth spread. This resulted in regular production as well as helping to promote interest in the original sauna stoves. Sales also soared due to the oil crisis of the 1970s, when homeowners returned to burning wood for heat.
Edna and Herbert Lamppa
Contribution / Lamppa Manufacturing
Herbert was mayor of Tower for more than a decade and previously served as a St. Louis County commissioner. Having introduced business development to the area, Tower named its civic center after him.
“He was really strong in the community and wanted this place to be successful,” Garrett said.
Eventually, Herbert and Daryl turned the old Tower Creamery (where Daryl previously worked and which his parents owned and operated for over 25 years) into a blacksmith shop.
Lamppa Manufacturing operated there from the 1970s until the end of 2019.
The old store was on the same block as Garrett’s grandparents’ house.
The nameplate on a finished Kuuma sauna stove at Lamppa Manufacturing in Tower.
Clint Austin / Archive / Duluth Media Group
They later developed the Vapor-Fire 200,
a design that almost eliminated smoke emission
and a larger version called the Vapor-Fire 100.
In 2007, Herbert became ill, so Garrett was recruited part-time to help his grandfather and father with administrative and marketing tasks until 2018, while he continued to work another job.
Garrett’s grandmother, Edna Lamppa, passed away in 2017,
in the next year.
“My dad couldn’t keep welding forever,” Garrett said. “We were going to sell the business immediately. So when people heard this locally, he went back to IRRR. They wanted a business like that in the Tower. They really wanted the jobs in this community and they wanted to work with us to keep it going.”
In 2020, Lamppa Manufacturing moved to the Tower Industrial Park, and Garrett fully transitioned to the company as CEO a year later. Her 4-year-old son, Leif, and 10-year-old daughter, Taimi, occasionally visit the store.
Taimi and Leif Lamppa
Contribution / Lamppa Manufacturing
“I could definitely imagine one of them working here, managing this long-term,” Garrett said.
Last year, the Kuuma BluFlame Gasified Sauna Stove hit the market with the help of financing from the Entrepreneurship Fund. Lamppa is working on developing an electric sauna stove that it hopes to launch by the end of the year.
“Sauna has really taken off in recent years. We hope to see this happen across the country,” Garrett said. “We are very well positioned for the next decade in the sauna industry.”