With 100 years of history, Raymond Corp. focuses on growth

GREENE, N.Y. — After celebrating its centennial year in 2022, The Raymond Corporation is focused on growth in 2023, and beyond.

“We’re fortunate in our business that we’ve continued to grow,” says EVP Steve VanNostrand. In the past year, Raymond has added about 360 new employees companywide, with about 300 of those at the company’s Greene and Syracuse–area locations.

The new employees are necessary as the company works to ramp up its production to “significantly higher” levels, VanNostrand says, to meet the growing demands of e-commerce.

A lot of the shopping that shifted online during the pandemic has stayed online and expanded even more, he says. That surge is a driving factor behind Raymond’s growth. The trends were already in place, VanNostrand says, but the pandemic really accelerated things.

“The pie has gotten bigger, but our piece of the pie has gotten bigger as well,” he explains. “We’re seeing a volume of orders for our products that we’ve never seen before.”

In order to produce the volume of product necessary, Raymond is making changes at its 500,000-square-foot Greene facility. 

“We are working with some minor extensions in the building to fundamentally have a significant production increase that’s ramping month by month,” VanNostrand says. The company has to be creative since the facility is landlocked without room to expand, so things like new equipment help it optimize space. Raymond also recently launched a second shift. 

“This place is busy 24 hours a day,” VanNostrand says.

Along with increasing production and employment, Raymond is also focusing on product innovations. “Our industry is shifting,” he says. There is a growing interest in lithium-ion batteries. “We think there’s a great opportunity for us to leverage our knowledge ... and integrate that.”

Automation remains a strong focus, especially as Raymond’s customers struggle to fill open warehouse jobs. “Everyone is looking for automation solutions, VanNostrand says. Automated fork trucks can help Raymond’s customers make up for workforce shortages.

It can be a struggle even for Raymond to find employees, but VanNostrand praises the company’s talent-acquisition team. It’s important for the company to remain in Greene, he notes, “It’s really critical to our culture.” It’s a small town with a family feel, but still provides global opportunity for the company, he contends.

Raymond employs more than 2,000 people at its Greene headquarters and its locations in the Syracuse area and Iowa and is currently hiring. Raymond also employs more than 7,000 people at its solution and support centers around the world.

Its expansion efforts in Greene through employees and equipment equal a substantive investment totaling in the millions, VanNostrand says.

“We’re here, we’re growing, and we’ve got a very bright future ahead of us,” he concludes.