This year marks 40 years in business for Tandemloc, Inc. To celebrate, we have shared many stories with our customers through our email newsletter, social media posts, throwback photos and more.
In 1984, Tandemloc was born in the basement of DiMartino Sr’s. house in Suffolk County, NY, alongside his son John DiMartino Jr. The company spent its first decade building its business and establishing a reputation for designing some of the market’s finest equipment for specialized container applications, like the “Tandemloc Connector”. But New York’s high manufacturing costs and demanding regulatory and red tape processes changed the trajectory for Tandemloc and the family. In 1992, John DiMartino Jr., his wife Sue, and their young children met a realtor in Havelock, North Carolina who offered them a 5,000 sq foot building for $1 a year for the first two years of the least. Tandemloc bought the building afterward and has been headquartered in Havelock, NC ever since.
Since moving to North Carolina, Tandemloc has been able to increase manufacturing capabilities. It took several years before we were able to bring all our manufacturing under one roof. Welding was done outside with the larger products that couldn’t fit inside the building and our sandblasting and painting were always done outside, along with proof testing. Due to the weather, it was difficult to maintain quality and schedules, so we eventually needed to expand. Since 2001, Tandemloc has expanded three times. Our expansions allowed us to grow in many ways each time. We brought all our blasting, painting and proof testing indoors, gained a lot of space to manufacture indoors, and expanded our proof testing stand to accommodate larger lifters. We eventually put a larger emphasis on our in-stock program, allowing our customers to receive their orders quicker after placing them.
In 2008, our founder and immense engineering design talent passed away. We eventually needed to find another engineer in addition to Mike’s son Bill, who was now the lone engineer. We hired someone from the industry and were able to add to our product lines of below the hook lifters. Since then, we’ve added several product lines to better serve the below the hook industry. Some of these products include Barrier Grabs, Pipe Grabs, Pallet Lifters, and Forklift attachments. We also launched our Rapid Ready Program, allowing customers to choose their lengths, WLL, and pick points. This program enables us to ship these lift beams or spreader beams out within 5-7 business days after placing an order.
Since then, Tandemloc has continued to grow. We received a SHARP safety award for 15 consecutive years, updated our systems already in place to achieve the ISO 9001-2015 certification, built thousands of custom products, and designed and manufactured some of our first electronic lifters. Through it all, we’ve remained dedicated to quality, safety and reliability which has come to be known throughout our industry as “The Tandemloc Difference.” Tandemloc continues to be a family-owned, family-oriented business and we look forward to the next 40 years.
