The Moorhead branch warehouse under development. (Photo/Submitted)
Fairchild Sales Director Doug Larsen, left, and Moorhead Branch Manager Jeremy Guthmiller. (Photo/Submitted)
Michael Stein
An award-winning material handling equipment and systems engineering company, Fairchild Equipment, established a physical presence in Fargo-Moorhead this year with an office and warehouse in the Moorhead Industrial Park. The building, located at 1921 26th Street South, formerly housed Schwan’s Food Service.
Branch Manager Jeremy Guthmiller said the site’s warehouse and equipment service area is still being developed. “This is the first branch that’s being built from the ground up in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Part of the work was removing a huge walk-in cooler. So, it’s still a work in progress, but we have road technicians that drive to our customers’ sites so we’re still able to provide equipment service in the meantime.”
Prior to opening a branch in Moorhead, Fairchild Equipment already had a presence in the FM area and beyond. “Locally and regionally, our customers include Crystal Sugar, Menards, and Cardinal Glass and businesses in cities such as Wahpeton, Valley City, and Fergus Falls,” Guthmiller said. “The new Moorhead branch allows us to better serve our existing customers in the area and build additional business in the region.”
Sales Director Doug Larsen, who is based in Bloomington, Minn., added that the new location improves the company’s ability to offer warehouse services and solutions. The Moorhead branch provides in-house equipment service and houses vehicles for its technician team to perform on-site service their customers’ locations.
“Our footprint is in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Northern Illinois,” Larsen said. “While our primary product is the forklift, we offer warehouse system designs that help our customers ‘right-size’ their warehouses for moving, stacking and storing materials. For anything that has been touched by a forklift, our Fairchild Systems division provides solutions to making space more efficient for our customers, whether they’re a major corporation or a small shop with one forklift. With our customized pallet racking solutions, we can help our customers increase their storage capacity by up to 75%.”
Guthmiller said the branch is in the process of stocking an extensive range of parts and rental equipment to support their customers’ material handling needs. Fairchild Equipment also offers forklift safety training.
While the technology has evolved, Larsen said the focus is still on “getting products from point A to point B, whether it’s product loading or unloading and getting it from one end of facility to another, or from the production line to storage. We now have electric and autonomous forklifts, and systems where you can do virtual pallet positioning and where you can program a forklift to move a pallet from one point to another.”
Larsen said that opening the Moorhead location was a logical move that matches the company’s growth with that of the FM area. “I’ve been with the company for 10 years,” he said. “And it seems like this entire area just keeps growing and growing.” He added that, regionally, the company’s technician team has greatly increased, and additional techs will be added to meet their customers’ service needs.
“We also have an allied division that offers equipment like sweepers and scrubbers,” Larsen said. “Overall, our vision is to be a trusted partner to our customers and an employer of choice.”
Guthmiller, who has been with the company for nearly 12 years, said they currently have two technicians at the Moorhead site with the plan to hire additional staff members. “We’d like to have three more techs available since our service area goes all the way out to western North Dakota.”
Fairchild Equipment recently marked 40 years of providing material handling solutions. Its Fairchild Systems division was named the Great 8 Dealer Award for Wholesale Pallet Rack Products for the past two years. The award recognizes the company as one of the top eight dealers of its kind in the country.
“Receiving the Great 8 Dealer Award for the second time is an incredible honor and a direct reflection of our team’s relentless drive for excellence,” said Mike Bruno, Systems Engineering Manager of Fairchild Systems. “We’ve successfully helped customers increase their storage capacity by as much as 75% through our custom-engineered solutions. This award validates our commitment to delivering measurable results and exceptional value to our partners.”