68 PEOPLE FOCUSED ON RESTAURANTS
Bluestem is a part of the Schier brand family, and born out of Schier’s focus on serving the restaurant and sewer operator communities in North America. We share the same offices, the same passion, and the same pedigree as our Schier coworkers.
Being part of Schier, we also share the same Purpose and Values, and are committed to a 100% USA supply chain.
The idea for Bluestem came from Schier’s two most important customers - restaurants and sewer operators.
America’s restaurant industry is vital, providing job creation, small business ownership, and dining experiences that bring families and neighborhoods together. America’s sewer infrastructure is also vital and is the envy of the developed world. It collects, conveys and treats the water we use to lessen the spread of disease and keep our national waterways clean. Restaurants need sewer access, and sewer operators depend on restaurants as a funding source. Unfortunately, restaurants and sewers often have a strained and even adversarial relationship.
Bluestem bridges these two vital communities. Because we understand the needs of both the restaurant and the sewer operator, we can provide a service that adds value to both - eliminating hassle and cost for the restaurant, while guaranteeing compliant wastewater and better reporting to the sewer authorities. That’s a win-win.
Vision
A thriving American restaurant industry supported by a capable and affordable sewer infrastructure.
Mission
To advance and serve America’s restaurant industry while protecting and strengthening American sewers.
Product
For simplicity, we have only one plan that includes everything to get the restaurant grease-line humming:
Initial assessment of grease-line, from floor drains to the city sewer connection
Pump out of the grease interceptor as needed
Control and prevention of grease-line backups
Guaranteed compliance with the local sewer authority
Built With Schier Inside
Bluestem pulls from Schier’s decades-long expertise in the U.S. restaurant and sewer operator communities. We speak the language of both restaurant and sewer operators fluently, enabling us to be a helpful translator so that they better understand and value each other. We deliver that translation through our unique service model - the industry’s only total grease-line management platform. The Bluestem platform removes cost and hassle for restaurants, provides perfectly compliant wastewater to the city, and extends the life of city sewers.
A Story of Focus
In 2002, after sensing an underserved market, a small Milwaukee area plumbing products manufacturer named Schier made the decision to focus on an unsolved problem - restaurant grease clogging city sewers. The company had little cash and about 10 employees, but what resources it had it devoted entirely to the cause.
By 2006, those humble investments bore fruit as Schier invented a new product category (high capacity hydromechanical grease interceptors) and the product that has come to define it, the Great Basin model GB-250. Four years after launch, the GB-250 had taken off, forcing Schier out of its small shop and south to a larger building in the Kansas City suburb of Edwardsville, KS.
The first GB-250, circa 2006
Today’s GB-250 Grease Interceptor, the industry standard
In Edwardsville, the “focus on grease” mantra really took hold. While Schier still offered sewer pretreatment products other than grease interceptors, the Great Basin® series was stealing the show. Listening to engineers, restaurants, and sewer operator feedback, Schier expanded the series to include 7 different models. The company began assembling a nationwide sales force and established a dealer network so that products could be had within 24 hours from coast to coast.
Edwardsville, HQ Interior
The Schier team discusses the new safety star for Great Basin™ lids
“24 people focused on grease”, The Schier team in Edwardsville, KS HQ, 2012
A New Promise
Great Basin sales built steam, pulling more and more of the company’s resources to the “grease” effort and away from its other products, culminating in 2013 with the decision to sell-off and exit all non-grease operations. It’s non-grease products became an independently owned and operated company called Striem, which is also located in the Kansas City metro area. Striem shares Schier’s focus of protecting sewers from other contaminants such as petroleum oils, chemical waste, and commercial solids such as lint, hair, and grit.
With only one product line remaining, Schier emerged with an obvious and memorable new tagline - “Lifetime Guaranteed Grease Interceptors”.
Outgrowing Edwardsville
By 2020, business expansion had again forced Schier to relocate, and the company moved across the Kaw river to its current and forever home in Shawnee, KS.
A Grease Interceptor Test Lab
Feeling trim and fit, Schier redoubled efforts to understand its market. Employees questioned everything and left no stone unturned - spending hours in restaurant kitchens, interviewing city FOG personnel, standing with plumbers on construction sites as restaurants were being built and interceptors were being installed, witnessing grease interceptors being pumped out in the heat of midday and in the wee hours of the night, co-designing grease interceptor systems with plumbing engineers, sitting on national, state, and city plumbing and sewer code development councils, creating new product certifications for the industry, testing existing certifications, developing standardized interceptor sizing methodology for the industry to use (and an app to make it even easier), redesigning products multiple times per year as feature requests came in, each time retesting them using thousands of pounds of hot lard.
Suffice to say, Schier took the job seriously.
Testing the GB-1500 on the new state-of-the art ASME A112.14.3 grease interceptor test rig.
So seriously in fact, that the company was spending more time solving restaurant and sewer grease problems in one week than the closest competitor was spending in a month, maybe even in a year. It amassed data and expertise that no other organization had. Because of this, Schier became the go-to when industry veterans needed help solving weird and unique restaurant grease problems.
Today, eleven years after “focusing on grease”, Schier is the unquestioned product and knowledge leader in the treatment of grease and food-laden restaurant wastewater.
Even the best grease interceptor, if not properly maintained, will fail and pass grease to the sewer.
The Origins of Bluestem
It was natural that the call for a better solution to grease interceptor pump-out found the ears of the Schier team.
City sewer operators appreciated that Schier made a great grease interceptor, but even the best grease interceptor, if not properly maintained, will fail and pass grease to the sewer. In the same way, plumbing engineers loved to specify a great product for their restaurant clients, but knew that if they were not properly maintained they would become a headache.
After years of focusing on making a better grease trap, Schier wondered if it was also uniquely suited to provide a better maintenance solution.
Restaurants Win, Sewers Win
Restaurants don’t want a better grease trap, they want to forget their grease trap even exists. This would require a grease-line that performs day in and day out, in the background - no clogs, no smells, no surprise costs, and no compliance issues. They want a grease-line operating at its peak efficiency, 100% of the time.
Sewer operators don’t want to “get better” at hassling restaurants to stay in compliance, they would prefer never to talk with them (unless it was to compliment the chef after dining). For this to happen, they need restaurant grease-lines performing quietly, day in and day out, in the background - no clogs, no smells, no compliance issues. They want a grease-line operating at its peak efficiency, 100% of the time.