Manufacturing Showcase
Stor-Loc By Russ Willcutt
W
hen Stor-Loc was established in Kankakee, Illinois, in 1982, its products had already been proven to be world-class industrial tool and parts cabinets. Based on a design developed by Elux, a company located in Switzerland, Stor-Loc began manufacturing its cabinets in the U.S. in 1991, including all component parts, supporting the statement that its products are 100-percent American made. “These cabinets have been tested by time,” according to Mike Ryan, president. “We guarantee that they will be the best cabinet you will ever buy.” With all manufacturing taking place in Kankakee, Stor-Loc has built a global distribution network, serving the North American market primarily through sales representatives and distributors and overseas through private-label agreements. Interestingly, Stor-Loc does not build stock cabinets in advance and hold them in inventory, instead amassing all the necessary materials on hand ready for quick assembly, painting, and shipping, all depending on the customer’s required delivery date. “We have a standard lead time of four or five weeks,” Ryan explains, “but if the customer orders 10 and needs two immediately, they’ll get them. We have the equipment and the flexibility to meet their delivery requirements, and that always comes first.”
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20 IMD AUGUST 2020
This ability to deliver is augmented by a workweek extending from Monday through Friday, and until noon on Saturday, even extending into overtime whenever a backlog makes it necessary, as it has been in recent months during which the company has enjoyed record sales, Ryan notes.
