Posted Aug. 28, 2005
Master potter and general manager Noah Montgomery turns a clay cup earlier this month at Sunset Hill Stoneware in Dale. Photo for the Post-Crescent by Wm. Glasheen
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| A closer look
Sunset Hill Stoneware
Address: W9689 State 96, Dale
Owner: Tom Dunsirn
Head potter and general manager: Noah Montgomery
Number of employees: 11
Founded: 1997
Projected 2005 gross sales: $650,000
On the Web: www.shstoneware.com
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Breaking the mold
Dale stoneware manufacturer
expands through customization
By Judy Waggoner
For Fox Valley INc.
College buddies Tom Dunsirn and Noah Montgomery had an idea to bring a 5,000-year-old art form into the 21st century.
Sunset Hill Stoneware in Dale is the culmination of that partnership.
The pair met while attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and became friends, sharing a love of outdoor sports.
A potter from Door County, Montgomery was taking art classes while Dunsirn studied business. They shared hunting and fishing trips while Montgomery worked at a production pottery company in Minneapolis for six years.
"He drove back to Wisconsin to go deer hunting and I just suggested that we put our ideas together and start our own company," Dunsirn said.
Montgomery, 31, and Dunsirn, 30, found an old fire station and courthouse 15 minutes west of Appleton and transformed the 3,000-square-foot space into a production pottery facility in 1997.
Steve Dennis, 27, joined the pair to handle the glazing of the hand-thrown stoneware mugs and steins.
"We were very small then, just getting organized, testing different clay bodies for the first few years," Dunsirn said.
A lot of trial and error went into developing the products, he conceded. All of Sunset's pottery are lead-free, dishwasher-, microwave- and oven-safe and incorporate a clear, three-dimensional crest.
Montgomery sold his shares in the young company to Dunsirn in 2001, but remains head potter and general manager.
Putting it together
From lumps of wet clay on spinning wheels, three master potters form each piece of greenware. Nearly 30 different styles of coffee mugs and 14 types of beer steins comprise 95 percent of the company's sales.
Mugs vary in size from 6 to 16 ounces and in price from $8 to $11. Steins range from 10 to 32-ounce capacity and cost $12 to $14.
Once formed, greenware is allowed to partially dry overnight in a "damp box" so handles and logo medallions can be attached the next day.
"After it dries, it is loaded into a bisque kiln and fired at 1,800 degrees for about eight hours," Dennis explained.
Customers can chose from 15 glaze colors that are applied either by dipping with tongs or by a spray gun.
"Then it sits for another night before it's ready for a hot fire at 2,200 degrees for eight hours," Dennis said.
Pottery can be mass-produced by a slip casting method, but Dunsirn and Montgomery preferred to efficiently produce stoneware using hand-thrown clay, an old-fashioned art form.
"You won't find anything like this anywhere else in the country," said Dunsirn, who recently installed a $25,000 air filtration system that circulates inside air six times an hour, eliminating clay dust and kiln smoke for workers.
"I like to keep things very organized and clean for the employees and have a fun place to work," he said.
Many of the manufacturing processes used at Sunset have been developed through custom engineering. Dunsirn tapped into expertise from his father, Duane, a retired entrepreneur.
"I am an investor, the company's engineer, maintenance man, inventor and, as Tom so aptly puts it, his 'chief problem solver,'" Duane Dunsirn said.
Getting the word out
Since becoming sole owner in 2001, the younger Dunsirn has exhibited in trade shows - 11 in 2004 alone. Although Sunset Hill mugs are sold retail at Country Sampler in Appleton, Dunsirn is primarily focused on luring corporate customers with a higher-end product at a reasonable price.
Heidi Supple, an owner in Fox River Brewing Co., saw Dunsirn's stoneware at a brewery trade show several years ago.
"We were excited about using a local company that would custom design a mug for our 'Mug Club,'" Supple said. "We use them at both of our breweries in Appleton and Oshkosh."
Companies also are interested in using the mugs to get their name out. For example, a targeted group of executives will receive a mug customized with the J.J. Keller logo on it before the American Trucking Association's October Management Conference in Boston.
"It's a two-step promotion; they'll bring the mug to our booth and get free tea to use in it," said Michael Monson, J.J. Keller's senior trade show specialist. "We chose Sunset Hill Stoneware because of the quality of construction and the weight of the product. It has a much higher perceived value than a normal travel cup."
J.J. Keller sales personnel will use the remaining mugs from an initial order of more than 400 as leave-behind premiums, Monson added.
Dunsirn's vision for Sunset includes a new catalog, an updated Web site and company growth that will more than double the number of employees and increase annual sales to $2 million.
"We're close to adding a fourth potter," he said. "We've taken a 5,000-year-old art and revolutionized it into a slick, well-oiled machine."
Judy Waggoner can be reached at pcbusiness@postcrescent.com