Raymond

Raymond Corp., now part of Toyota’s material handling group under Toyota Industries Corp., is a well-known manufacturer of electric material handling equipment. Its range of lift trucks are used in narrow aisle and very narrow aisle storage applications includes pallet trucks, forklifts, pallet stackers, reach trucks, side loaders swing reach trucks and order selectors. The company's lifts trucks are used across the globe in wide segments of industries with home prevent centers comprising the core of its customer base. Every year their lifts trucks travel 400 million warehouse miles (644 million km).

History - Raymond Corp. was family-oriented business until it was recently bought by Toyota. Company was founded in 1922 by George Raymond, Sr., an efficiency engineer, when purchased a foundry named the Lyon Iron works in the village of Green, New York. It established itself as a manufacturer of buckboards, cast iron wheels and dollies for the agriculture and mercantile markets. By the 1920s it crossed over into material handling business when it made its first commercially used hydraulic hand lift truck for handling skid platforms. From this product evolved the company’s first hand truck for moving and helping to work with double-faced pallets, named the L4p.

Invention of the Pallet - One invention credited to George Raymond, Sr in collaboration with William House that revolutionized the material handling industry the invention was of a wooden pallet, patented in 1939. The pallet was a supporting structure that featured new front to back stringers and top to bottom decks that allowed that pick and transports of loads by a forklift. The same year, they both also have received a patent for the company’s very first lift truck.

Raymond Becomes a Household Name - If Raymond was not already a household name, it was very fast it became one after it introduced the first computer controlled driver system for material handling trucks in 1980's, followed by the first advanced control handle in 1991. The control handle made the lift truck operator execute all function of the truck with a single hand. The company's profile on a global scale was also raised substantially when it was acquired by BT in 1997; a Sweden location based material handling company. Both BT and Raymond were then bought by Toyota Materials Handling group, part of Toyota Industries Corp. in 2000. The three amalgamated companies have emerged as the largest lift trucks manufacturer in the world. In 2001 Raymond corp. has taken lead with the development of the first industry ac-powered reach fork truck built exclusively for the North American market.

The Company Today - Despite being owned by Toyota, Raymond retains their full rights over its brand, products and distribution. It has sites established in Green and Syracuse, New York; Brantford Ontario; and Muscatine, Iowa. In North America, It relies on 31 dealers to sell its products through approximately 108 locations. As of 2007 the company employed 2,260 people and has reached a sum of $602 million by the end of the fiscal year.