When the time came for the company to develop a new broiler, it turned to its equipment manufacturer, Nieco, and St. Louis, Missouri-based Duke Manufacturing. Burger King's goal was to maintain the company's trademark flame broiling method while allowing more product options on a flexible cooking platform. The solutions that Nieco and Duke devised met that goal by using control features during cooking. The cooking methods employed by the two manufacturing companies vary in their methods; Nieco employed two chains, one that maintained a single speed and cooking temperature, and another that had a flexible speed setting and variable temperature control. Duke's solution utilizes an oven that cooks according to preset parameters for time and temperature, one heterogeneous product batch at a time. The first batch-style broiler was introduced in April 1999 and was tested in-store in central Wisconsin during the summer of 1999.