As Dominque Seim walked through the manufacturing area of RH Peterson Co. last week, stopping in the area where employees hand-paint the concrete logs used in fireplaces across the globe, he checked on the quality of the work being performed.

The company does not use dyes, castings, molds or sponges in painting the logs, said Seim, the president of the City of Industry manufacturer.

“Every single one of them is hand-painted by artisans. They go through every single detail for the colors to make sure we actually match the wood bark, the charred look and we do the highlights and everything,” he said.

Peterson is a manufacturer of premium gas grill, fireplace and outdoor fire feature products for the home, including the Fire Magic, Real Fyre, American Outdoor Grill and American Fyre Designs brands.

The Real Fyre gas log sets retail for several hundred dollars, the patio fire features in the American Fyre Design line start at $3,000, and the luxury Fire Magic gas grills can retail for more than $10,000 dollars depending on model and options.

“As the trend of homeowners investing in the creation of backyard sanctuaries began during the pandemic and continues today, we’ve seen our revenue from outdoor kitchen and fire-feature products increase more than 50 percent during that time, compared to pre-pandemic levels,” Seim said.

Seim became president of Peterson in September. He replaced Leslie Bortz, the owner of the firm, who had been president for more than 45 years. Bortz is now chair of the company.

History in the business

Seim has been involved in the fire products industry for nearly 40 years. He has been familiar with Peterson and its Real Fyre premium fire log products since he was 9. Both his father and grandfather had appliance stores when he was growing up.

“With that history and what it brings to the table, being part of the dealer group that we sell to, I have familiarity with all of the struggles and issues they go through so that I can help coach and guide through those issues and make it a bit friendlier for them,” Seim said.

Bortz said that he has been “fortunate to work with a team that achieved record success over the last several years.”

“Dominque is the ideal leader to move our company into the next phase of growth,” Bortz said in a statement when Seim was named president. “I look forward to partnering with him as we advance our company forward.”

Bortz wanted to let the next generation come in and run the company, Seim said.

Bortz is still involved with Peterson, even after taking a step back from running the day-to-day operations. He remains a mentor to a lot of employees and someone who provides guidance, Seim said.

“He’s still a big integral part of the company,” Seim added. “But it allows him to go out and enjoy his life a little bit more and have more freedom knowing that the company is in good hands.”

Jim Montgomery, a co-owner of Backyard Expressions, a three-store chain with locations in Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach and Laguna Hills, has known Bortz since the late 1970s.

He said that he likes Peterson because they stand behind everything they make and still support older equipment.

“They also make a lot of innovations. They test market. They are always trying to do something better than the last time,” Montgomery said.

He said that Bortz cares not just about his company but that he’s trying to promote the whole industry.

“He gets involved and doesn’t just sit back. He is very involved in the industry and in his company and gets to know everybody,” Montgomery said.

Peterson’s future plans

Seim said he plans to keep the core traditions in place while running Peterson.

“We have a great culture here, so I want to keep it going,” Seim said.

He said he would build off what’s been established over the last 75 years. The company was founded in 1949 by Robert H. Peterson.

Seim said the company would be looking into new technologies and for new ways to engage with customers globally through the internet and social media, which is handled by Amy Bortz, vice president of marketing, at the firm.

He said the company was “building off that to actually grow the market that way. We already sell worldwide so we’re already all over the world, so we must think about that aspect.

“We’re not just marketing here in the U.S.; we are marketing globally and hitting those markets and putting us in that direction,” he added.

Peterson has an international reach with its products, said Jerry Scott, senior vice president.

Fire Magic, for instance, has distributors in Mexico, England, Israel and Germany, among other countries.

While in the U.S., it has historically been the southern part of the country – Texas, Florida and California – that has taken to barbecuing, the company has also sold into the Pacific Northwest and New England, Scott said.

“They have a shorter cooking window but when it’s available they want a Fire Magic to do the ultimate barbecue,” Scott added.

Offerings beyond grills

Peterson wanted to develop an outdoor kitchen where one could cook anything that can be made in an indoor kitchen, Scott said.

In addition to the grills, the company also offers outdoor refrigerators to store food and outdoor drawers to store cooking utensils; one can have faucets and sinks added to their outdoor kitchen set up as well, he said.

“You are basically creating your indoor kitchen in the outdoors and in my opinion, it is a lot more fun to cook outdoors than it is indoors,” Scott added.

In both product design and manufacturing processes, the key word is innovation, Seim said.

The company has three laser cutting machines that work around the clock and doesn’t need an operator to be there, he said.

There is another automated machine that Seim describes as being from “Iron Man” for the way the operator can manipulate the digital image the device projects.

“This is a fast turn over machine,” Seim added. “It used to be that it would take 45 minutes to do the turnover for the tooling,” he said. “This will do it in five to six minutes.”

Also, in the Real Fyre product line, it has some log sets that glow in the background.

“That is part of the innovation, the new technologies that are available” he added. “When your fire is on you will see the log start glowing just like its real embers in your traditional fireplace.”

Every time they’ve added a piece of automation everybody gets worried about losing their job but staffing has actually increased because its throughput is more because of the automated machines, Seim said.

“We need more people to move the product, to assemble it, all these other functions that happen downstream from the automation,” he added. “We’ve never actually lost anybody due to automation but have always grown from the automation that we do here.”

One of the things that Peterson is blessed with is the longevity of its workers, Scott said.

The average tenure for an R.H. Peterson employee is about 15 years, Seim said.

“We have some employees who are 30, 35, and even 45 years that are still here though,” Seim added. “Jerry has been here 36 years, and I have been here 20 years myself.”

“I consider him a rookie,” Scott quipped.