Lodge Manufacturing Company, founded in 1896 by Joseph Lodge in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, has operated continuously for 130 years under family ownership—a rarity among American manufacturers of its age.
The company traces its origins to the Blacklock Foundry, which Lodge established after working on Cuban railroads and settling in Tennessee. A fire destroyed the foundry in 1910. Lodge rebuilt the operation, renamed it Lodge Manufacturing, and never left South Pittsburg, a town of 3,100 people along the Tennessee River.
Today, Lodge employs 400 residents and produces 50 million pounds of cast iron annually. The company has modernized selectively: it automated its molding and casting process between 1957 and 1965, introduced its now-iconic logo in 1973, and became the first cast-iron manufacturer to pre-season cookware in-foundry in 2002.
Lodge diversified its product portfolio starting in 2005 with enameled cast iron designed to compete with European brands, followed by carbon steel cookware in 2013. In July 2019, the company debuted the Blacklock label, a lighter gourmet line. That August, Lodge acquired FINEX Cast Iron Cookware, a Portland-based startup.
Capacity expansion accelerated in 2017 when Lodge opened a second foundry in New Hope, Tennessee, a 127,000-square-foot facility that increased overall production capacity by 75 percent. The company opened the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron in October 2022 in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance.
Most cast iron sold by Lodge continues to be made at its original South Pittsburg foundry using traditional sand-mold methods.
