Today we’d like to introduce you to Philip Casteleyn.
Hi Philip, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
How I Accidentally Purchased the Oldest Sauna Stove Manufacturer in the United States
It all started on February 13, 2023, around 10 p.m.
I had moved to Traverse City, Michigan, about a month earlier to open a new office for the financial services firm where I was working as a financial advisor. After finishing a workout and sauna session at the gym, I was starving and needed to grab something to eat. At that hour, one of the only places still open was Buffalo Wild Wings.
I sat down at the bar and struck up a conversation with the only other guy sitting there. His name was Stephen.
After some small talk, we started discussing our interests. I mentioned that two of my favorite things were spending time on the lake and sitting in a sauna having great conversations.
Stephen responded by telling me that his grandfather owned a sauna stove company, along with a dock and boat hoist manufacturing company, in Beulah, Michigan.
We had a great conversation and exchanged numbers afterward.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. But on the drive home, I remember thinking, Wow, it would be pretty sweet to own something like that someday. It combined two things I was genuinely passionate about: the lake and the sauna.
I had no idea how important that random conversation would eventually become.
One Year Later
Fast-forward almost exactly one year.
My family and I had moved back downstate to Brighton, Michigan. With a family and three children at the time, I usually waited until the kids were in bed before going to the sauna so I wouldn’t take more time away from them.
The problem was that my normal sauna routine wasn’t really possible on the weekends.
My friends and I would regularly say how great it would be if one of us had a sauna where we could all get together and enjoy the same conversations and camaraderie we had become accustomed to during the week.
That eventually sparked my decision to build a sauna of my own.
Even though I had helped plenty of other people build saunas over the years, I had never actually built one for myself. I went back and forth between building a sauna trailer or putting a permanent sauna on my lake lot so I could enjoy the full cycle of hot sauna followed by cold water.
And as any serious sauna enthusiast knows, the stove is the heart of the sauna.
So I started looking for one.
The Facebook Marketplace Stove
On February 10, 2024—almost exactly one year after meeting Stephen—I came across a Facebook Marketplace listing for a “Vintage Nippa Stove.”
The problem was that it was located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The seller wanted $900 for the stove. He told me he could ship it for around $600 and offered to lower the stove price to $600 to help offset the shipping cost.
I never responded.
Then, on April 10, Facebook notified me that the seller had lowered the listing price to $650.
That got my attention again.
I messaged him and asked if he ever came downstate. He replied that he had actually just been down.
I told him I was 100% interested and asked him to let me know the next time he was heading south.
Then, on May 21, he messaged me.
He was coming down the following day and told me that if I could meet him somewhere along his route, he would sell me the stove for $600.
So that’s exactly what I did.
At 10:15 p.m. on May 22, 2024, I met Sean, the seller, at a gas station at 105 E. Main Street in Carson City, Michigan.
That night, I became the owner of a vintage Nippa WC sauna stove.
At the time, I thought I had simply bought the stove for my future sauna.
What I had actually done was take the first step toward buying the company that made it.
A Trip to Nippa
The stove was covered in surface rust and needed some attention, so I reached out directly to Nippa to see whether they would sandblast and repaint it for me.
They said they would.
About two months later, on July 23, 2024, a friend and I finally made the trip to Nippa’s headquarters in Beulah to drop it off.
When we arrived, we were greeted by Diane Michael and her father, Dean.
After we pulled the stove out of the truck, Dean asked me a simple question:
“Do you want a tour of the manufacturing facility?”
I excitedly said yes.
As we walked through the shop, Dean showed me how the stoves were made and told me about the history of the company.
At some point during the tour, I asked him how old he was.
“82,” he replied.
That made me curious.
After he finished showing me the facility, I asked another simple question:
“What do you plan to do with this place, and how much longer do you plan to keep doing this?”
His answer caught me completely off guard.
“I’ve been waiting for someone like you to come in and offer to buy it.”
I told him I was interested.
And just like that, the negotiations began.
From Buying a Stove to Buying the Company
A little over a month later, on September 9 and 10, I returned to Beulah to conduct full due diligence.
We went through the books, financial statements, equipment, real estate, manufacturing processes, inventory, and operations.
I also learned that the transaction was about more than just Nippa.
The purchase would include the real estate and Classic Dock, another legacy northern Michigan company that manufactured docks and boat hoists.
Suddenly, the random idea I had while driving home from Buffalo Wild Wings a year and a half earlier was becoming very real.
But it wasn’t a done deal.
Over the next several months, I continued working through the numbers and trying to determine whether we could structure a transaction that made sense for everyone involved.
There were several points where I wasn’t sure we were going to get there.
Finally, we decided to make one more trip to Beulah on November 22, 2024, to see if we could salvage the deal.
That day, we came to terms.
Then, on December 2, 2024, we sat down with Dean, signed the paperwork, and officially purchased Nippa Sauna Stoves and Classic Dock.
Less than two years earlier, I had randomly sat next to a stranger at a Buffalo Wild Wings and told him how much I loved saunas and being on the lake.
A year later, I bought a rusty Nippa stove off Facebook Marketplace because I wanted to build a sauna in my backyard.
A few months after that, I drove the stove to Beulah to have it restored.
And before the end of the year, I owned the company that built it.
Sometimes the biggest opportunities in life don’t start with a business plan.
Sometimes they start with a random conversation at a bar, a rusty stove on Facebook Marketplace, and asking one simple question:
“What do you plan to do with this place?”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Taking over a nearly 100-year-old manufacturing company has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, but it has also been one of the most difficult.
Nippa was founded in 1930 and is the oldest sauna stove manufacturer in North America and the second oldest sauna stove manufacturer in the world. With that kind of history comes a tremendous amount of pride, but also a tremendous amount of responsibility.
One of the biggest challenges was that I didn’t just buy a brand—I inherited decades of history, old equipment, legacy processes, customer expectations, and a business that needed to be modernized while still preserving what made it special in the first place.
There was an enormous amount of value in Nippa’s history and reputation. At the same time, many parts of the operation still functioned like an old-school manufacturing business. Systems, sales processes, marketing, production tracking, and technology all needed significant attention.
There was also a steep learning curve for me personally. My background was in financial services and helping companies scale and grow. I had never taken on a project that involved welding, fabrication, plasma cutting, foundry work, or manufacturing. I had to learn the business from the ground up—everything from how the stoves were actually built to sourcing steel and castings, running production equipment, troubleshooting machinery, understanding shipping freight, and dealing with suppliers.
Staffing has probably been one of the most difficult parts of the journey. Manufacturing only works when you have dependable people showing up and producing consistently. At different points we dealt with employees leaving, attendance problems, training issues, and periods where production was operating with almost no staff. There were times when I was personally working extremely long hours just trying to keep orders moving and customers taken care of.
Cash flow has been another major challenge.
Manufacturing is extremely capital intensive. You often have to buy steel, castings, components, packaging, and other materials weeks or months before you ever receive the final payment from a customer. At the same time, you have payroll, utilities, insurance, freight, equipment repairs, and a large manufacturing facility to maintain.
When production slows down but those expenses continue, things can get tight very quickly.
We also experienced supplier problems that created additional challenges. At one point, a foundry we depended on for critical stove components changed payment terms and withheld completed parts, which created a significant disruption to production. Situations like that taught me very quickly how vulnerable a manufacturer can be when an important component comes from a single supplier.
Then there is the challenge of rebuilding and growing the company at the same time.
We weren’t simply trying to keep Nippa alive. We were developing new products, rebuilding the website, improving our marketing, creating dealer and builder programs, developing partnerships, updating manuals and documentation, improving production, and trying to introduce Nippa to an entirely new generation of sauna owners.
All of that was happening while still trying to manufacture and deliver stoves every day.
There have also been some difficult customer situations. When production delays happen, customers understandably become frustrated. I’ve had to learn how to communicate through those situations, take responsibility where appropriate, and still protect a small manufacturing company from commitments that simply aren’t sustainable.
On top of everything else, there is a certain weight that comes with owning a company with this much history.
Nippa has survived the Great Depression, World War II, multiple recessions, enormous changes in American manufacturing, and nearly a century of different owners. When you’re responsible for the oldest sauna stove company in North America and the second oldest in the world, you don’t want to be the person who lets that legacy disappear.
There have definitely been moments where I’ve wondered what I got myself into.
But those challenges are also part of what makes the opportunity exciting.
We have the chance to take an incredible American manufacturing company with nearly a century of history, preserve what made it successful, modernize the parts that need to change, and hopefully build something that will still be manufacturing sauna stoves in Michigan another 100 years from now.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Nippa Sauna Stoves was founded in Michigan in 1930 and is the oldest sauna stove manufacturer in North America and the second oldest in the world. Nearly a century later, we still manufacture our stoves in northern Michigan using American steel and skilled craftsmanship.
We specialize in traditional wood-burning sauna stoves.
What sets Nippa apart is our belief that a sauna stove shouldn’t be a disposable appliance. Our stoves are built heavy, simple, serviceable, and made to last for generations. There are Nippa stoves still in use today that were built decades ago—including the 65-year-old stove that ultimately led me to purchasing the company.
But what we build is really only part of our story.
We believe a sauna should offer more than heat. It should create connection, restoration, and a return to something real.
We do that by combining nearly 100 years of heritage with American steel and skilled craftsmanship. We don’t just make stoves—we heat spaces where experiences happen, conversations are shared, relationships are strengthened, and memories are created. And we build our products with the durability to be passed down and enjoyed for generations.
At the end of the day, we build sauna stoves for people who refuse to compromise on authenticity.
What I’m most proud of is that we’re not trying to reinvent Nippa or erase its past. We’re preserving what made the company special while bringing it into the modern era through new products, improved manufacturing, new partnerships, and a renewed focus on the customer experience.
Our philosophy is still pretty simple:
Build it in Michigan. Build it heavy. Build it simple. Build it to last.
Nippa has been doing that since 1930. Our job now is to make sure we’re still doing it 100 years from now.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that surprises most people is that I had zero background in manufacturing before purchasing Nippa.
My career was a mix of sales, finance, and consulting, where I spent most of my time helping businesses and individuals grow, plan for the future, and connect with products and services that improved their lives. I wasn’t a welder, fabricator, or manufacturing expert. I had never run a plasma table, worked with foundries, or operated a manufacturing facility.
When I purchased Nippa, I decided that if I was going to lead the company, I needed to understand how every part of it worked. So I started learning from the ground up—welding, fabrication, production, equipment, sourcing, shipping, and how each stove is actually built.
That lack of traditional manufacturing experience has become an advantage in some ways. I came into a nearly 100-year-old company without the mindset of, “This is just how it’s always been done.” It allowed me to look at the business with fresh eyes while still having tremendous respect for the craftsmanship and knowledge that have kept Nippa alive since 1930.
Something else people may not know is what the commitment looks like personally. I’m a father of four—Oliver, Thea, Ava, and Kai—and Nippa is about four hours north of where my family lives. Most weeks, I leave home Sunday night, spend Monday through Friday at the business, and then make the four-hour drive home for a short stretch with my family before doing it all over again.
It’s not always an easy balance, but I’m incredibly conscious of what I’m building and why I’m building it. I want my kids to someday see that their dad took a chance on something he believed in, worked to preserve an important piece of American manufacturing history, and hopefully built something that lasts well beyond me.
And the funny part is that none of this was planned. I was simply someone who loved sauna, bought a 65-year-old Nippa stove for my own sauna, and drove it back to the factory to have it restored.
A few months later, I owned the factory.
In a strange way, I was a Nippa customer before I ever became its owner—and that still shapes how I think about the company today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nippa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nippasauna
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nippastoves/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipcasteleyn/
