HE'S COOKING NOW

Fred Carl Jr. dreams big
and creates the
'best of the best'

by Maridith Walker Geuder
photos by Fred Faulk

From a riverfront street in Greenwood, Miss., Viking Range quietly is making its mark on the culinary world.

In offices that once were cotton warehouses, employees at corporate headquarters dress casually and are on a first-name basis with the boss. Fred Carl Jr. likes things that way.

The founder of a company that makes the original commercial-type appliances designed for home use, he has steered Viking from the drawing board to its current success. The company is a leader in an industry Carl largely created.

Just over 10 years ago, Viking shipped its first range. Today, the company employs nearly 500 people and its elegant appliances are touted by magazines such as Home as the 'best of the best.'

Viking corporate headquarters, Greenwood, Miss.

Viking ranges, refrigerators, dishwashers, and other appliances are featured in Architectural Digest and other high-end publications. Viking appliances are in the homes of major movie stars, chefs, and heads of state. Viking products are sold in more than 60 countries around the world.

With longtime Mississippi State University ties, Carl recently donated appliances for a newly renovated kitchen at the president's home. He's also donated a range, hood, and dishwasher to the Athletic Department and appliances to the A.B. McKay Food and Enology Lab.

An international success, he says he's proudest of one accomplishment: "I'm proud we made it."

Once few people but Fred Carl Jr. believed in his 'range project.'

In the mid-1970s, Carl was working with his dad in the construction business in Greenwood, his hometown. He and his wife Margaret were building a new home, and they wanted a particular kind of stove. One just like Margaret's mom had-a big, solid Chambers. Something that looked as though it belonged in a restaurant.

They quickly learned that no such product existed. Commercial products were not suitable for residences because of the extremely high heat output and the lack of safety features.

Carl did his homework and saw an opportunity. "I found it unbelievable that there was nothing like this and that no one recognized the need," he has said. "No one saw the niche before Viking did."

He's not a cook but "a product person," he explains. "I knew the product needed to be created."

In his spare time, at hours such as 2 a.m., he got out his graph paper and designed his dream stove. Those drawings hang in corporate headquarters today.

Viking products incorporate the advantages of commercial appliances while tailoring them for home use. Ranges boast large oven compartments, stainless steel construction, high BTU output for faster cooking, electronic ignition, and infrared broiling, among other features. A recently introduced "dual fuel" range incorporates both gas and electricity with a self-cleaning electric oven.

There also are built-in rangetops, thermal convection ovens, electric warming drawers, ventilation systems, side-by-side refrigerator/freezers, wine coolers, ice machines, dishwashers, waste disposers, and a recently introduced outdoor gas grill.

All are marketed for professional style, craftsmanship, and quality.

An odyssey of obstacles

At first, no one thought it could be done. To create the product he envisioned, Carl initially tried to interest companies producing commercial ranges. "They all said, 'We can't do this,'" he recalls.

He made a list of companies and he began to call on them. He took his drawings, he pitched his dream, and he ran into one wall after another. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, while Margaret worked as a nurse and his dad kept the construction business running smoothly, he continued to plug away at the range project.

A display kitchen at Viking Range Corporation showcases a wine cooler, ranges, microchambers, and other products.

One company was willing to produce the range if it could issue a similar product. He went to the next manufacturer. And the next. And the next.

"One of the hardest things I had to do was to keep going," he says. "I knew the project could succeed. I counseled myself about how other people had succeeded when they encountered obstacles."

He credits the support of his family and a "corps of cheerleaders" in his community. "There were five or six people here who would encourage me," he says. "They'd always ask, 'How's that stove coming?'"

Eventually, one manufacturer agreed to build a prototype. With delays, changes in management, labor strikes, and other obstacles, the first 20 units didn't ship until December 1986. Within two years after that, "I knew we might succeed," Carl says.

If you build it, they will come

Once his product was launched, Carl realized that meeting production goals would require a bigger commitment: he'd have to build the ranges himself. After assigning initial production to contract manufacturers in California and Tennessee, he decided to move production to Greenwood.

In 1989, the company produced its first rangetop in the Greenwood facility, and in 1992 it moved production to a manufacturing facility that has since been expanded to 150,000 square feet. A second 40,000 square-foot facility produces specialty products such as ventilation hoods, microchambers, and food waste disposers.

The company uses a manufacturing system that produces only what is ordered. To reduce inventory, raw materials, and warehouse needs, every product that is manufactured already has been sold. Every step of the process is driven by something that is waiting to be done for the finished product. The goal is a two-week turn-around.

Some products originally outsourced-ventilation hoods and wall ovens, for instance-have been moved in-house. Staffers say the company strives to improve performance and appeal. "We want the products to be user friendly," says one.

Employees are considered team members, and Carl's goal is to maintain a family atmosphere in the privately held company. New stockholders, such as Arkansas-based Stephens Group, will allow the company to grow aggressively, but Carl says he wants Viking to remain people-centered. "I want Viking employees to be deeply rooted in our culture," he says.

The value of dreams

For Fred Carl Jr., the seeds of success may have been laid in his experiences as a student, at Mississippi State and at several other academic institutions in Mississippi, although he describes his academic experiences as "kind of ugly."

He initially began his schooling at Mississippi State, transferring after a difficult first semester to Mississippi Delta Community College. It was the height of the Vietnam War, and his draft status was 1-A. He joined the Navy, was sent to Iceland, and spent nearly all of his two-year enlistment on the arctic island.

Returning to Mississippi, he considered his academic options. Newly married, he finished courses at Mississippi Delta Community College and enrolled at Delta State, where he ultimately graduated. Both he and Margaret were full-time students and worked part-time, Margaret in a physician's office and Fred in an architectural firm. This job proved to be a galvanizing influence.

"I have had a lifelong interest in and strong affection for architecture," he notes. In 1973, Mississippi State established the state's only School of Architecture and, after finishing his degree at Delta State, Carl enrolled in the school's second class of students. "I saw this as an opportunity to finally pursue my dream of attending architecture school," he says.

Viking Ranges are manufactured in a 150,000 square foot production facility.

Circumstances and fate had a different idea. "I started with summer school to take some prerequisite courses that I needed, along with architecture appreciation," he recalls. The following fall, with his architecture work experience taken into account, he was advanced to the sophomore class. "I did quite well and thoroughly enjoyed the program, in spite of the rigorous demands of design studios."

Job offers for Fred and Margaret intervened, ending what Carl describes as his nontraditional academic path.

In 1992, he established the Carl Scholarship in Architecture to honor his father, and his son now is enrolled at the university. "I have a tremendous respect for the university and all that it does for our young people, the state of Mississippi, and this region," he says.

And, though he never became an architect, Carl credits the experience in helping launch Viking Range.

"Not fulfilling my dream to finish architecture school at State was a major blow. However, it instilled in me the determination not to let a dream slip away again. I kept this constantly in mind the entire time I struggled to establish Viking Range Corporation.

"Missing out on one dream enabled me not to miss out on another."