My Story
Tony Pitt has been in the stove industry for almost 40 years, he goes to great lengths for his customers and his knowledge of wood-fired products is second to none. He is committed to quality and strives to advise customers on the very best, most efficient stove for their individual requirements.
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“I fell into the wood industry really, because of my father. My goal originally was to be a Royal Canadian Mountie! I started chopping wood for a local wood stove shop for the summer months waiting to hear if my application was going to be accepted for the RCMP. It wasn’t and here I am! Which I absolutely don’t have any regrets about.
“I soon moved to installing stoves and was introduced to the customer service side of the business. I learned what it takes to do a great job, to meet and exceed the standards our customers expected. The early years of wood heating was really going crazy, government grants turned the wood industry into a fantastic business. Retail was now in my blood! “I bought into the shop (Granny’s) and soon found myself managing a second store in Victoria. A third store was opened in Vancouver and woodstoves and wood inserts were going out the door faster than we could get them in. I then moved into a very successful period in wholesale sales of pellet stoves.“We soon saw an increase in the need for gas products, so I went back to school and obtained my level 1 gas license. We had a huge product range and sales of 6 to 10 million dollars a year were driving us to be the biggest distributor of gas stoves in western Canada.
“Business was fun and exciting and, eventually, the company sold at a huge profit for all the stock holders. “I refocused locally and went back to retail, helping a gentleman from the UK start the process of importing the ESSE product into Canada. I had the fortunate opportunity to be introduced to owners of ESSE and we soon became friends. “We did our first large HPBA show in LA to launch ESSE in North America and it was a fantastic show. We picked up our first distributor out of Portland Oregon and ESSE was on its way to getting established.
“A few years later, we felt it was time to open our own warehouse, one in Chicago and one in Trenton Ontario. We now run the ESSE business from an office in British Columbia and the warehouse in Trenton. The ESSE product, with its high standards and quality of manufacturing, has allowed us to have many happy customers, both wholesale and retail, all across North America.
“We are proud to be the Distributor for ESSE here in North America and look forward to seeing many more homes using ESSE products in the years to come. After so many years in the heating industry, it still feels exciting to hear what we promote is working for our customers.
“We don’t just ‘sell’ the product, we work with each and every customer to make sure that – from start to finish – their experience with their new ESSE is a good one.”
Tony Pitt
Customers cookers
We cover
Canada
Alberta | British Columbia | | Ontario | Manitoba | New Brunswick | Newfoundland | Prince Edward Island | Quebec
In the United States
Alaska | Colorado | Maine | New York | North Dakota | Vermont | Wyoming |