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Plant Tour:
Coleman Propane Bottling W.C. Coleman founded the
Hydro-Carbon Co. in Kingfisher, Okla., in 1900. He moved the company to
Wichita in 1901. The company is now 105 years old, and continues to grow
with outdoor, backyard, tailgating, heating, cooking and lighting products.
The company’s name has changed over the
years, from Hydro-Carbon Co. to The Coleman Lamp Company in 1913 to The
Coleman Lamp & Stove Company in 1925 to The Coleman Lamp and Stove Company
in 1928 to the Coleman Company, Inc., 1945 to present.
Mr. Coleman moved the factory to 250 N.
St. Francis in 1909 and headquarters remained there until 1990. At that
time, the main offices and most of the remaining production departments
moved to the Northeast facility at 3600 N. Hydraulic.
The Maize property was purchased and
development of the Propane Plant started in 1986, with the grand opening in
early 1987. The Machine Shop was moved to the Maize facility when production
ceased downtown in 1990.
The Maize facility is located on 16.2
acres and has a total of 116,000 sq. ft. under roof, 81,500 sq. ft. for
manufacturing and 34,500 sq. ft. in warehousing.
The Machine operation supports the
Northeast Plant’s burning appliances operation with a variety of machine
parts.
The shop also produced all the machine
parts that went into the “engine” for the Olympic Torches used for the 2002
Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The Propane Plant produces 16.4 oz.
disposable propane cylinders. When the Propane Plant was founded in ’87, the
goal was to produce 5 million cylinders per year. In 2003, an astounding
28.8 million-plus cylinders were produced; all within the same basic square
footage as the original plant.
On October 21, 2004, the 300 millionth
cylinder was produced. The vast majority of the propane cylinders are
distributed and sold in the U.S. and Canada.
The folks at Coleman are proud to provide
quality products that are used by millions to enjoy the great outdoors as
well as provide for those in need in cases of emergencies.
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