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How one company has built market share by increasing its lifting capability
Dan Demaria, owner of Demaria Electric Motor Services in Paramount, Calif., credits his cranes with taking his business to the next level. The road to get to that point was an interesting one. Demaria began working with electric motors when he was 16 years old, alongside his father Anthony in the family garage. The two primarily served as marine electricians, working with voltage regulation, inert gas systems, and troubleshooting motors on ships.
In 1978, he and Anthony, who is now retired, opened a 1,500-square-foot shop in Wilmington, Calif. "We didn't have cranes in the shop at the time, but we got by with a forklift, which we used to transport larger motors," he said. "We also used carjacks to remove and re-install rotors. It was very primitive. We were cavemen."
Eventually a company that did rewinding work for Demaria on the other side of town was closed by the 1RS. Anthony's friend, who owned the building that housed the rewind company, bought all of the company's equipment at an auction. The Demaria's soon moved into that building and set up shop with these additions. "That's when we took off," Demaria said.
Cranes drive expansion
That ascent can be attributed to the company's elaborate crane system. The shop's first cranes were two three-ton monorail cranes and one two-ton monorail crane. As years went by, the business expanded, so Demaria added two fiveton bridge cranes that can be used in parallel to lift ten tons.
Still not completely satisfied with his crane capacity, in 2005 Dan told his brother and business partner, Gary, that they needed more room. The company moved once again, this time from Wilmington to its 18,000-square-foot current home in Paramount.
It was here that Demaria began work on designing and installing even more cranes, but the process was not a quick and easy one. First he spent two years making adjustments to the building to accommodate the larger cranes. He tore down the roof and put in a new raised version. He then had the roofing contractor, who helped with these facility tweaks, turn his attention to the structural steel work for 15-ton cranes and a 5-ton crane.
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