Business View Magazine
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of Applied Handling Northwest – now being run as
a division of DACO – in November 2013. The corpo-
rate office and warehouse operations are housed in
a 93,000-square-foot facility in Kent that opened last
year, and the assets also include a 4,000-square-foot
office/warehouse building in Portland, Ore.
Nearly 80 percent of overall business is transacted
with customers within the original territorial blueprint
of Washington, Oregon and Alaska, though 20 percent
these days is done across the rest of the U.S. The larg-
est share of the business – roughly 35 percent, Duff-
ield said – comes from food processors and growers,
and frequently brings with it a unique sense of late-
stage urgency.
“In this sector they often don't know what they are go-
ing to need until the last minute,” Duffield said. “They
won't know if it is going to be a strong fish run until
during the season or they won't know if the cherries
are going to be a strong crop until near harvest, and
even then Mother Nature can play a role in increasing
or decreasing the harvest. For that reason, we inven-
tory a lot of fish totes, harvesting lugs and other plastic
containers, pallets and cleaning tools that they need.
The processors can't wait for the manufacturer to pro-
duce these products so we carry a large inventory of it
for them.” Other strong business sectors for DACO in-
clude fishing (17 percent), manufacturing (30 percent)
and distribution (20 percent). Duffield said 20 or so
material handling companies compete with DACO on
a limited basis in the region in specific niche market
segments, while two or three other entities are more
routine competitors when it comes to larger products
that have been put out to bid.
