Founded in 1971, and manufacturing casters
since 1979, Trio Pines U.S.A. Inc. is one of the first companies
to provide exceptional value by offering quality casters for
immediate delivery at low-cost.
Although
some importers have tried to imitate its successful business
model, Trio Pines still remains the largest U.S. supplier
of foreign-made casters, having the highest quality and the
widest product line, with models ranging in load capacities
from 75 lbs. to 10,000 lbs each caster.
The Trio Pines factory,
located just outside Seoul, Korea, is ISO 9001:2000 certified,
and is the largest caster producer in Southeast Asia. The
company has undertaken plans to broaden its manufacturing
base in China where it will combine its own engineering, tooling,
and management resources with lower labor costs in order to
carry on with its history of providing customers with the
best possible value.
Trio
Pines products are used in hundreds of industries from food
service, electronics, computer and medical equipment, heavy
duty industrial products, moving dollies, shopping carts,
musical equipment, display and garment racks, and scores of
other products manufactured and sold in North America. Many
Trio Pines models are NSF listed to meet sanitary requirements.
Backed
by three fully-stocked warehouses in Los Angeles, Chicago
and Dallas, Trio Pines markets its casters through distributors,
offering nationwide coverage. Trio Pines also sells internationally,
from Canada and Mexico to Europe, South America, and throughout
the Pacific Rim.
Trio
Pines U.S.A., Inc. was acquired in 1991 by Samick Musical
Instruments Ltd., now called SMC, one of the world's largest
manufacturer of pianos, guitars, and other musical instruments.
As The Wheel
Turns:
The Unofficial & Unauthorized History
of Trio Pines
Once upon a time there lived a dreamer. It wasn't a big dream -- it wasn't even a very pleasant dream, but a dream it was, and he had it. Then, he woke up and drove to work.
This story has nothing to do with him.
Trio
Pines U.S.A., Inc. was incorporated in 1971 as a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Sam Song Industries of Seoul, South Korea (later
to become Sam Song Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and then Sam Song
Caster Company Ltd.). Sam Song didn't do much in those
days. And since all the people from back then are no
longer with the company, we have no idea what they did, so
we can safely assume they did very little.
Anyway, Sam Song (which is Chinese for "three pine trees" . . . Trio Pines -- get it?) started making things. In fact, that's their motto: "We Make Things." Anyway, in 1979 they started producing one particular caster as a special item for a customer. Then, out of its tiny office in Los Angeles, Trio Pines started selling that caster to a couple of customers in the U.S. Then one of those customers said "Hey, this is good quality, and it's really cheap. Can you make some other casters for us?" We said "Sure!"
Soon we had three models. Unfortunately, none of them had wheels. For a caster, that's not a great selling point. Realizing we had a minor marketing problem on our hands, we asked Sam Song to make wheels and Sam Song said "Sure! That's what we do! We make things!"
(By the way, please don't get Sam Song mixed up with Samsung, the electronics giant. They make things too, but very different things.)
So anyway, we made things for many companies, including several of our competitors. We made casters for this, wheels for that, an option here, a new fastening there. It was great. Then, all of a sudden (well, okay -- 25 years later), we had 35 series with over 30,000 different model combinations! We became one of the top ten caster companies in North America -- selling more product than many of our better-known competitors -- and Sam Song became the largest manufacturer of casters in Asia.
In 1984, we opened Trio Pines Chicago to give us a better shipping advantage to the mid-west and east coast, and to help get us tickets to Cubs games.
In 1986, we started a partnership to open a warehouse in Atlanta to market our products in the southeast U.S. and remained with that partnership until 1999 when they switched to another supplier (a competitor) without bothering to tell us. (It slipped their minds.)
Also in 1986, we connected with a fine company in Toronto to market our products in Canada. They made their own quality products, and sold some of ours as well. Our arrangement with them ended on friendly terms in 1999.
In 1995, we opened Trio Pines Dallas to service the expanding Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas markets. It was a smashing success, and is still growing like a prairie fire in the panhandle.
(We also crashed and burned with a few failed enterprises in the northeast US, but we don't want to talk about those. Let's just think Happy Thoughts, okay? Negative vibes are so, you know . . . negative!)
Generally,
we did such a wonderful job that in 1999, the Marmon
Group (owners of some of our worthy competitors such as Colson,
Albion and Shepherd) began negotiations to buy Sam Song/Trio
Pines. Although that deal fell through with a leaden
thump, it's nice being popular. In fact, in June 2002,
we were purchased by Samick Music of Seoul, South Korea, a
manufacturer of music equipment (pianos, guitars, etc.). The
buyout kept us independent, and still able to be a royal thorn
in the side of the stuck-up sticky-beaks who think they own
the industry.
In
February 2003, Trio Pines purchased Dash International, a
part-sister company / part competitor. In January 2005,
Dash merged into the Trio Pines facility and operations and
now Dash is a full-fledged part of the Trio Pines family.
Our Christmas parties will be much more fun now.
In
September 2004, Trio Pines moved into a new (much larger)
corporate headquarters in La Mirada, California with terrific
views of our neighbor's parking lot, and the sounds of a ghost
train that passes by every so often.
In
November 2005, Trio Pines reorganized its management to aggressively
set our course in an exciting new direction. (The plans
are partially Top Secret, but we'll be glad to sell them to
you for just $19.95!) Trio Pines is now positioned to
continue to grow and expand, surpassing the glorious days
of yesteryear and joining the adventurous ranks of tomorrow.
Or something like that.
Well,
that's it. Not quite everything about Trio Pines, but
enough. (We left some of the juicy parts out for the
movie version.)
Until next time, keep thinking "Casters!"
|
