New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
TURNING UP THE HEAT
Partnership with Red Sox sparks growth for Kenyon International
A 90-year-old Connecticutbased company is making a name for itself in the highly competitive market for cooking grills.
Clinton-based Kenyon International is using a partnership with the Boston Red Sox to raise its profile in a market that is crowded with well-known brands like Weber, Char-Broil, Coleman and Kenmore.
Michael Williams, the company’s vice president of sales, said since Kenyon became the official grill partner of the Red Sox five years ago, sales attributed to the partnership have grown by 35 percent. The partnership that includes the Kenyon First Base Deck, a 4,267-square-foot eating and dining area that is on the second level of historic Fenway Park.
Ironically, none of Kenyon’s grills are used in the space because the company doesn’t have a business relationship with Aramark, which handles the food concessions at Fenway. But the dining space comes with plenty of signage that links Kenyon “to one of the most iconic brands in
baseball and New England,” Williams said.
In addition to the relationship with the Red Sox, company officials believe they have an advantage that the other grill brands don’t: Kenyon’s focus is solely on electric grills, while other brands are spread across multiple fuel sources.
“While there are certainly other companies that make grills, we don’t look externally for rivals because as far as we know, there isn’t a company
that does exactly what we do,” Williams said. “Our biggest rival is ourselves to continue improving what we do to meet the needs of our current and future customers.”
Measuring the market
The arrival of the pandemic in March 2020 resulted in an increase in homes owning some kind of outdoor grill. A Virginia-based trade group, the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association reported that 80 percent of all home owners in the United States and 70 percent of all households in this country own at least a grill or smoker.
The group’s consumer research found that 38 percent of all grill owners had purchased a new grill in the past two years. Of those who purchased in the past year, 27 percent did so because they were cooking at home more due to the pandemic.
“People (are) spending more time at home and changing their overall habits,” said Jack Goldman, president and CEO of the trade group. “We have a clear picture of how much the pastime of grilling has grown, and we’re finding it’s at near record levels.”
Gas grills remain the most popular choice of consumers, followed by those fired by charcoal, according to San Francisco-based Grand View Research.
But ownership of electric grills is expected to have the fastest compound annual growth rate of all three types through 2025. Fact.MR, a Maryland-based market research firm, found in 2020, the residential electric grill
market was estimated to be valued at more than $900 million.
Kenyon’s operation’s ‘bursting at the seams’
The company has been in its current home in an industrial park near Clinton’s border with Westbrook for more than two decades. The 30,000-square-foot facility is “bursting at the seams,” according Williams, although the company has no immediate plans to expand its existing space or move to another facility.
“It is very costly to move and the workforce that we have are very talented, so moving would not only uproot the machinery and other aspects of the business, but we could not bring all of the people that make this company what it is,” Williams said. “We haven’t made efforts to seek a new facility, but we are working to better use the space we have and improve our processes in manufacturing to help us grow.”
Members of Clinton’s Economic Development Commission “are very aware of Kenyon’s need for space,” said John Allen, chairman of the municipal board. Kenyon is a member of the Clinton Manufacturing Coalition, a subcommittee of the commission, a group that is looking to raise the profile of manufacturers based in town.
Inability to find adequate space to expand a manufacturing business in Connecticut is not unique to Kenyon. State Sen. Norman Needleman, D-Essex, is president and founder of Tower Laboratories,
which has a factory adjacent to Kenyon on Heritage Park Road in Clinton.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said the lack of space available for manufacturers looking to move.
Tower makes store brand effervescent products like denture cleansers as well as pain cold relief products. Needleman said he has been looking for space to expand his manufacturing operations and despite looking on the Shoreline from Branford to the Rhode Island border, has been unable to find any existing buildings that would meet his needs.
Speaking in his role as a state lawmaker, Needleman said Kenyon “is an excellent company, the kind that we should be looking to keep in the state.”
From aviation to making grills
The business was founded by Theodore “Ted” Kenyon, who was a pilot for Colonial Airlines and his wife Cecil “Teddy” Kenyon, who was one of the first women in this country to earn a pilot’s license.
Though the couple’s business got its start in the Boston area, they soon moved it to Connecticut. And by 1958, the couple had moved the business — which was then know as Kenyon Laboratories — into a building at the Chester Airport, so they could park their airplane out front.
Kenyon Laboratories made aviation and marine instruments, but also produced alcohol stoves for use in boats. Over time, Kenyon’s business expanded to include the development of ceramic glass cooktops for boats, which became
the standard for yachts.
Michael Williams’ father, Phillip, now runs Kenyon International. Phillip Williams is the company’s president and a co-owner of Kenyon, having bought it with some friends in 1996. Another of Williams’ sons, also named Phillip, is also a company executive, serving as Kenyon’s vice president of manufacturing.
The workforce of Kenyon is a close-knit group. Many of Kenyon’s 50 employees have worked there for a decade or more, according to Michael Williams.
Frank Palmeri of Clinton is one of those veteran employees, having worked for the company for 16 years.
“They really treat you like family,” Palmer said.