What started as a small venture over 15 years ago has turned into a successful business recognized around the Kootenay.
Snowball Ventures has received the Gold award for Fireplace/Wood Stove Dealer and a Bronze award for Furnace Sales & Service from the Kootenay Business Magazine’s 2011 Best of Business awards.
The awards are given to recipients based of reader surveys in the Kootenay Business Magazine.
President and owner John Billwiller began the business after first installing his own pellet furnace into his home.
“You couldn’t buy decent pellets anywhere in the area,” explained Billwiller. “I had to travel to Nelson to get pellets. So when I had the opportunity to sell pellets, I did so and it snowballed from there.”
Snowball Ventures, named thusly because Billwiller lives near the Snowball Creek area, located north of Grand Forks, sells wood stoves, wood stove inserts and furnaces.
Pellet stoves differ from regular stoves because it uses compressed sawdust about the size of a pen and around an inch long.
The pellets are then fed into a burned pot at a regulated rate. Inside there is forced air compression and a fan that increases the combustion.
“It is far more efficient than wood and a lot more convenient,” he pointed out.
Billwiller is also a part of the Woodstove Exchange Program, which is focused on exchanging older furnaces with more heat and carbon efficient models.
“Every year a few people take advantage of (the program),” he said. “It’s also pellet stoves and other forms of heating that are replacing inefficient wood heat.”
“It’s always a surprise because I’m just a little guy out in the bush, north of Grand Forks,” he recalled. “Platinum was given to Kootenay Wood Stove, and they’re much bigger than I am.”
Billwiller added, “I’d like to thank everybody who voted for me over the year.”
For more information, visit snowballventures.com.