The Raymond Corporation achieved record production volumes in 2023 and hopes to continue its success in 2024. (Submitted photo)

GREENE — The Raymond Corporation, a Toyota Industries company, has deep roots in Chenango County that have been growing for more than a century.

The company, founded in 1922 by George Raymond, celebrated its 100th anniversary year in 2022 and continues to move forward with innovative thinking and modern technology.

In the beginning, Raymond ambitiously worked through patents of key elements for material handling that were also used for automation and mass production. His insight to the value of the common wood pallet that was being used by so many companies aided in the creation of an industry standard.

He was also inspired by the hydraulics of the barber chair and created the first lift truck, commonly known as a fork lift.

With continual research and the patents placed on key designs, he released the rights to some of those designs, making them free for any business to copy and use. It was a major success and changed the industry.

The company has employed and provided for thousands of local residents and remains one of Chenango County’s oldest and most successful companies headquartered in the Village and Town of Greene.

Record-level production and key workers

“It’s been an exciting year for Raymond in total and on the positive side, we were able to achieve record production volumes in our manufacturing facilities,” said Raymond Corporation Executive Vice President Steve VanNostrand.

“That was our key priority and we made good progress on that front and were also able to grow the number of talented people we brought into the organization, even in a really tough labor market,” said VanNostrand. “We also made significant investments in our facilities that will enable further productivity and volume growth in 2024.”

He said in Greene, they have three major facility expansion areas that will allow them to have further volume increases in capacity improvements in 2024.

“At the same time we have some exciting new products and most importantly, further strengthened our relationships with our customers around the world as we continue to have record market share,” VanNostrand said.

He explained they were able to increase their production levels by approximately 30 percent year after year. And if you think about the global supply challenges that was a huge accomplishment through a lot of hard work by a lot people.

He said in a really tough labor market, they added over 400 people to their core manufacturing business.

“We achieved record market share,” he said. “Our market finally slowed up a little bit but not really slow, it just went back to what is was pre-pandemic. But our share of that market continues to grow and I think that demonstrates the strength of our brand and our strategy of how we go to market.”

Manufacturing outreach

VanNostrand explained there are a lot of small things about partnerships and outreach. For a number of years now, he said they do a manufacturing day where they bring people in where they can see the plant.

“We do associate testimonials to high school students from very experienced people about their career in manufacturing and how that has worked,” he said. “It’s one of those opportunities that we have, to reach between 1,000 and 2,000 people but the fact is, the schools continue to be highly interested and really engaged and participating in this and I’m just proud of the way the team delivers on that each year.”

“I’m really proud for the team, we got quite a few awards we won this year, we’re on the Forbes list for “Best Mid-Size Employers,’ which is great for our location,” said VanNostrand.

He said they had planned engineering product of the year awards and Raymond proudly announced Greene employee, welder Jordan Taft, won gold in the welding category of the international Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG) Skills Competition.

VanNostrand said they had great product introductions that helped them further strengthen their leadership position in the market.

Innovation and energy

“A mix of technology products, new trucks, and new market space have all came together in 2023 and we have some good follow up items for the upcoming year that will build upon that history of innovation,” VanNostrand added.

“We introduced our first outdoor electric lift truck. Generally our trucks are intended to be used indoors in warehouses,” VanNostrand said.

“This is an electric product that you can use outside and replaces historically whats been an internal combustion sit down type of truck. It’s a new market space for us and we’re really excited about the potential.”

According to the Raymond Corporation the 4800 and 4810 models both feature the confidence-inspiring Raymond Performance Stability System, which offers a high level of vehicle control for reduced damage to goods and facilities. Both models give users an ergonomically-designed operator station featuring a full-suspension and fully adjustable seat, with an attached armrest and fingertip hydraulic controls, with faculty side shift and much more.

Raymond Corporation Product Manager Tim Rice said, “Both of these machines are designated specifically for outdoor applications. This makes them perfect for lumberyards, big-box stores and building material suppliers, as well as for container yards, agricultural or commodity applications— any customer who’s interested in an emissions-free, low maintenance all-electric lift truck, but is unwilling to compromise on performance, indoor/outdoor capability and way of operation.”

“In almost every industry we serve, there’s a growing interest in more sustainable operations,” Rice said. “We’re seeing an increasing number of users making the switch from conventionally powered lift trucks to electric trucks. For any lift truck user interested in converting to an all-electric fleet, the 4800 and 4810 models make perfect sense.”

VanNostrand continued to list additional new technology. He said they have a new product called an Integrated Tether.

The Integrated Tether System is a first-of-its-kind operator assist tool designed to alert operators and managers and to limit lift truck functionality if an operator is not properly tethered. The wireless connection in the Integrated Tether System is compatible with Raymond lift trucks, is unique in the marketplace, and offers valuable data-gathering capabilities that can help reinforce best practices with all operators, enhancing security and confidence.

Raymond Corporation Product Manager Shannon Curtis said, “Over the last several years, facility owners and managers have had to deal with increasing the number of operators in the warehouses and the need to reinforce and monitor best practices.”

“As a result, managers are looking for technology-based offerings that can help assist managers with these ever-increasing demands,” she added. “This solution comes at a perfect time to support the new U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration national emphasis program and reinforces Raymond’s dedication to providing secure solutions and operations.”

VanNostrand also noted the new lithium ion battery launched and is another huge area of growth around energy solutions.

Raymond Corporation Energy Storage Technology and Integration Senior Product Manager Damon Hosmer said, “The 48-volt drop-in lithium-ion battery offers customers a smart alternative energy solution to upgrade existing or new lift trucks.”

“This new product solves three of the biggest concerns our customers tend to have when adopting alternative power sources: footprint, power, and run-time,” said Hosmer. “This battery delivers higher energy density in a smaller footprint, which creates more power, decreases charging times and increases run-times.”

According to The Raymond Corporation, the battery is designed as a direct, plug-and-play replacement for conventional lead acid batteries, the new 48V lithium-ion battery fits lift trucks with compartments of 13 inches and larger and requires no additional modifications.

The new battery also provides for continuous data exchange between Raymond lift trucks and chargers, giving customers easy access to critical operating metrics and to the Raymond portfolio of telematics and intralogistics solutions.

Hosmer added, “Our chargers, LIBs, and telematics packages all work together to optimize performance and data acquisition. Used in conjunction with the Raymond’s Power Source Integration and iWAREHOUSE platform, this new battery gives users access to a more holistic view of their operation, allowing for better decision-making, boosting battery life span, improving operational efficiency and increasing productivity.”

“Those are the things that are unique to Raymond,” VanNostrand said. “Our customers say our technology is driving well beyond the ability to lift something and put it away.”

Building on strong

foundations

VanNostrand said, “The key is to build on the strong foundation we put in place in 2023, so it’s going to be major challenges to make sure we retain the strong talent we brought into the organization, that we continue to work with our supply base, and we work with suppliers around the world.”

He said as they continue to expand, suppliers need to progress to support them so they have a lot of efforts happening to focus on ensuring they can provide a stable supply as Raymond Corporation grows.

“And of course,” VanNostrand said, “To maintain our quality and focus on continuous improvement, that’s always a priority for us.”

He said there are local challenges finding workers but they company has been very successful and performed better than expected in this type of market. The key is to have a community where they can attract talent from around the world, primarily throughout the US.

“Having a community with reasonable tax rates and great schools are areas where we all have to continue to work together to ensure we’re providing that type of environment because as hard as it is to sometimes get people to relocate to New York, very often once they’re here, they stay,” said VanNostrand. “They have great quality lives and a good family environment and all of those factors tend to keep people with deep roots here.”

“We have a relatively wide expanse of recruiting talent and manufacturing tends to be more local hires but we do have outreach programs to all parts of New York and beyond where we think we can attract talent,” he said.

“We do have a couple temporaries and within 90 days or so they can transition to a full time role as long as they demonstrate a good work ethic and ability to learn those types of things that are going to make them successful in the future,” said VanNostrand.

He said the turnover numbers are very competitive compared to most manufacturing facilities. He added they have a lot of associates with over 40 years of service and one this year will celebrate 55 years of service.

“We have a group of very long-tenured people, that I think provide a lot of stability for the organization in total,” he said.

In the short term, VanNostrand explained they brought in a lot of people that had no manufacturing experience at all and transitioning for some went very well, while some struggled with being reliable and coming to work daily in the pace of the manufacturing environment. He said turnover for those people is usually within the first month where people say “this is just not what I expected” or “this is just not for me.”

“In this environment, there are a lot of positions that are hard to fill for all organizations across the country,” he said. “Really, even globally, when you look at some of the labor shortages that are taking place, I would say for us the biggest challenge is on the manufacturing side or more skilled positions like welders, machinists, and then on the corporate office side, engineers and professionals in a number of different areas.”

“We work very hard to make sure we have the right level of talent for the company,” said VanNostrand.

He explained manufacturing associates coming in are provided on the job training and provided opportunities to work outside the assembly. They also have a safety training area where you’re taught basic skills and continue to build upon those. He said they have those for a number of different areas of the organization.

“We want people to join us but we want to hire them for a career, where they can develop and grow over time,” said VanNostrand. “So, we have invested a lot on the leadership development side because these days it’s more critical then ever. I always reinforce people leave leaders before they leave companies.”

He said supervisors and managers have such an impact on the quality of peoples’ lives and retention with the organization, so they’re spending a lot of investment in that area to ensure they have a strong leadership team that can grow the company and take care of their associates.

“We believe we have to be super active in the community and at the highest level we believe we need to educate teachers, guidance counselors and others in influence, about what exciting careers actually exist in manufacturing,” he said. “A view of manufacturing they may have from 30 years ago, things look quite differently now with technology and the environment we work in now.”

“We work very closely with local BOCES, many of the school districts, Department of Labor, STEM initiatives, we work with a lot of the universities with financial support, speaking, mentoring projects, and doing all of those types of things,” said VanNostrand. “It’s one of the areas of outreach that has really impacted our ability to attract talent.”

He said Raymond

Corporation has a couple of high school apprentice programs where eight or ten high school students work with them, four hours a day. He said they do a lot of co-ops for multiple colleges and those are all opportunities to attract talent and sell manufacturing as a future career.

Investing in automation, research and telematics

“We’ll have some new product introductions, but the plan expansions and our continued focus on delivering and innovating around our core product of lift trucks,” said VanNostrand. “Also, an additional focus is on automation, energy, telematics, all of the technology related products that our customers are becoming more and more reliant on us to help them become more efficient and more successful businesses.”

The Raymond Corporation continues to sponsor the University Research Program, which was created to encourage and support professors and student researchers to apply their engineering and technical research to discover innovative solutions for the material handling industry. The theme for the 2023-2024 research proposals is “Research to Enable the Future of Material Handling.” Raymond will announce grant recipients early this year.

The company had their first job fair in January and if their projections hold out, VanNostrand said they would like to grow another 200 people in Greene this year.

VanNostrand noted The Raymond Corporation in total is now over 9,000 people. The core company of manufacturing and parts and distribution center has just over 3,300 in New York. In Greene, they have over 2,300 with about 2,100 being full time employees.

VanNostrand said he believes they hired 35 people a few weeks ago to start the year.

“Of course we’ll have people retire and transition, but we plan to further grow our net head count number,” he added.

“The key thing is, we feel like we have the right talent in place but we need to continue to provide people a reason to either move here to Upstate New York or to stay here in the community,” VanNostrand said. “The more we can do to make this an attractive place to live and grow a family, that’s the top priority where we could use specific help from local government and the community.”

“I actually think things are improving in Greene, with new restaurants and businesses that have recently opened,” he said. “Raymond has been a part of Greene for over 100 years now and we had our great celebration over a year ago.”

According to the Raymond website The Raymond Corporation’s long history of innovation, quality, and service have been part of our DNA since the beginning.

The Raymond Corporation states from our continuous improvement practices in our manufacturing facility to our game-changing products and solutions, we are excited to be recognized by industry publications and global organizations for ultimately supporting our customers’ ever-evolving needs while continually challenging ourselves to run better and manage smarter.