New Diamond Phoenix plant opens

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2000

Opening a new, 105,000 sq ft manufacturing plant and headquarters in Lewiston, Maine recently, Diamond Phoenix execs pointed to what put "phoenix" in the company name. Begun as Diamond Machine in 1946, the firm's old plant burned to the ground in 1972. Later, the company endured multiple ownerships and bankruptcy.

But today's Diamond Phoenix has risen renewed from the old ashes. And it's better positioned for a new millennium's business.

"Manufacturing space has nearly doubled," says Thomas F. Coyne, CEO. Added space optimizes the plant for maximum productivity and adds capacity.

"Recent e-commerce consumer and B2B trends," adds Larry Strayhorn, president, "require real-time order placement and same-day shipment." In the new millennium, "high-speed broken case picking, full case cross-docking technology, and automated sortation will be key technologies for the successful e-commerce company."

Strayhorn foresees "the days of delivering large quantities of goods through traditional wholesale and retail distribution channels nearing an end. There is an enormous proliferation of mixed load palletizing, case shipments, split case orders, and single line item order distribution requirements."