Watts Radiant heats up winter with SunTouch

More than floors are heating up at Watts Radiant this winter.

The radiant floor-heating and snow-melting system manufacturer, formerly known as Watts Heatway and originally named Heatway Radiant Floors and Snow-melting, formally changed its name to Watts Radiant Nov. 1. It was a change implemented by its parent company, Massachusetts-based Watts Industries.

But Watts Industries has changed more than the Spring-field company's name.

In August 2000, the plumbing and hydronic heating industry giant Watts recorded $516.1 million in sales last year purchased Heatway after the local company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Heatway was forced to file after it was hit with a $2.7 million court judgment in litigation with Goodyear.

"Watts corporate wanted to have a transitional name for about a year so we could bring customers from Heatway to Watts Heatway and then to Watts Radiant," said Tracy Hall, Watts Radiant's national sales manager, of the transition.

Carrying the Watts name bodes well for the company because of Watts' rich history it was founded in 1874.

"Certainly being a Watts company has aided us not so much in volume increase, but in our ability to purchase products at the right price," said Hall, who was hired by Heatway in 1991.

While Watts Radiant has benefited from the acquisition, the parent company has benefited as well, according to Hall. That success stems from SunTouch electric floor warming systems.

"We brought a new component to their offering in radiant heating," Hall said. "That's one of the reasons that they originally purchased us. It gave them a new venue to sell those products. It's been a good marriage for both parties," he added.

For each of the last two years, the SunTouch division has sold 130 percent more than the previous year, Hall said, and "this year it looks like we'll be in that neighborhood again." SunTouch jumped from $300,000 in sales in 1998 to $1.8 million in 2000.

"We're doing about nine to 10 times the amount of SunTouch business that we were three years ago," Hall added.

Those numbers have generated some national recognition for the local company. Hall said Watts Radiant typically sells about $12 million annually, but "this year it's closer to $14 million. Right now, in our hydronic business, we're up about 10 percent over the previous year," he added.

"Hometime," a national cable television show that airs on PBS and The Learning Channel, recently featured the SunTouch product. "I just got a call from one of my sales representatives, and they said they saw it up in Minneapolis," Hall said.

In addition, a few national publications have done pieces on the electric heating systems. One was The Family Handy-man magazine. The systems also were featured in Black & Decker's latest book, "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Improvement."

"That's really where most of the focus has been ... on the electric side," Hall said.

All of the electric heating systems are manufactured in the SunTouch plant. The heating wires are woven in a mesh netting, created by rebuilt and restructured looms. The machines are actually 1950s chassis looms purchased from an old carpet mill, Hall said.

"These things are doing something they never thought they'd do," said Rudy Haldiman, electric equipment and maintenance coordinator.

Another aspect of the business that's gaining interest is its outdoor turf warming systems.

Hall said the company has installed the systems in professional and collegiate football and baseball fields, including the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field, the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bank One Ballpark, the Chicago Bears practice field, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colo., and it is now working on the New England Patriots' new stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

Teams are installing the heating systems underneath their fields, "so that they can use a predominantly southern grass in a more northern climate," he said. "You can use a Bermuda-type grass and trick it into thinking that it's actually earlier in the year, and it will continue to stay green until you turn the temperature down. There's a growing number of people interested in it."

The primary buyers of Watts Radiant's hydronic heating products are wholesalers like Springfield's Harry Cooper Supply Co. and Dallas-based Dal-Tile Corp., the nation's largest tile distributor, according to Hall.

A year and a half ago, Watts Radiant began its first relationship with a retail outlet: Home Depot. Boxed electric warming mats were placed in 17 locations then, but now they are carried in 140 Home Depot stores. So far this year, Hall said, the square-footage of mats sold has doubled from last year.

Watts Radiant recently entered the Home Depot test markets of Albu-querque, N.M., Salt Lake City and Minneapolis, Hall added, and the company anticipates more markets opening up next year in New York, New Jersey and Seattle.

Watts Radiant's production is conducted by 45 employees in three different buildings: one for the SunTouch division; a second for the hot-water heating products; and a third is for the manifold/ special projects area. The three buildings total nearly 80,000 square feet, Hall said, but added that the company would like to relocate to a larger building to bring all production under one roof. Watts Radiant's offices are located at 3131 W. Chestnut.