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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.
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