Strathmore Ladder Company is located in Central California in heart of the citrus belt. The company was started in the 1920’s by S.L. Beville as a manufacturer of wood ladders on the same piece of land we still occupy today. Strathmore Ladders were well known and sold throughout the fruit growing regions of the west coast. Also known for many years as Strathmore Ladder Works the ladders produced were made from quality hardwoods with steel components. In the years that followed the company endured despite many obstacles including a world war and a fire in 1955 that destroyed the original structures including all the inventory and machinery.
In the early seventies Mike & Jeanie Wilson first came to work at Strathmore Ladder. Mike as the manager, Jeanie handled the bookkeeping duties. Although sales for the wood ladders were still strong at the time, the new lightweight aluminum ladders were growing in popularity. Strathmore Ladder was well aware of the benefits aluminum provided as they were already offering an aluminum step as an option on the wood ladders being produced. Although aluminum cost more it was light, durable, and weatherproof. The decision was made and a new aluminum ladder line was added for our customers that would prefer them. For the almost 20 years that followed, the wood ladders remained in production side by side with the aluminum ones in our factory. By the late eighties only a small group of customers still insisted on buying them. They were sadly discontinued in the early nineties after almost 70 years of continuous production, the final blow being the lack of quality wood available in the marketplace to produce them with.
Our location in one of the largest fruit producing regions of the world has greatly influenced the ladders we produce today. It has provided us with the unique opportunity to inspect first hand thousands of heavily used ladders subjected to real world AG use conditions. This experience has led to many improvements and continues to influence our product development. We believe this has given us a distinct advantage in producing a much more durable product you can depend on season after season.
Mike & Jeanie went on to purchase Strathmore Ladder in 1977 a short time after coming to work for the company. Over 40 years later the business remains family owned and operated by the next generation.
Strathmore Brand Ladders are distributed regionally by a small group of loyal and valued dealers located in most of the major fruit growing regions of the US and beyond. Together with them we are able to continue the tradition of distributing quality orchard use ladders to those that need them.
For those of you that are already Strathmore Ladder customers welcome back. For those of you visiting for the first time thank you, we hope you enjoy our website.
