Pacific Die Casting Company California History –
Pacific Die Casting Company 6155 South Eastern Avenue, Commerce, California has ceased doing business in California this year. Die casting customers wanting to remain in California can contact Kinetic Die Casting Company for your die casting parts at 818-982-9200 or email sales@kineticdc.com.
Former newsletter: Pacific Die Casting U.S. Operations Closure
This is the story by Bob Thomas that is a recounting of his memory of working at Pacific Die Casting Company in Commerce California and his founding of Kinetic Die Casting Company in North Hollywood California.
Pacific Die Casting Company in California (Pacific) was founded in 1951 in Paramount, California at 15006 South Verdura Avenue, Paramount, CA 90723 by Tip Welch. Pacific was located on Verdura Avenue and was east of Downey Avenue and north of Compton Blvd (now called Somerset). Operating out of three small buildings a total of 20,000?sq?ft with 10 die casting machines. Now that location is apartment complexes. Pacific did not have a website or fax number before the sale from Tip to Vince. Pacific had the phone number of (213) 636-1052. While operating Pacific in Paramount, Tip hired his son David in the 1960s. Dave Welch left Pacific in Paramount and later opened El Monte Tool and Die Casting Company in El Monte, California in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, Dave Welch closed El Monte Tool and Die business and auctioned off the business assets.
In 1981, Tip sold Pacific under an asset and profit agreement to Vincent Orlandini. Vince, at the time, was running Newland Hardware in Pasadena. Vince took over operation of Pacific with his children Janet, John, Jim, Jeff, Joe, Jerry and Joanna. Janet Orlandini ran the office, Jeff Orlandini took over finance and operations as Vice-President, and Joe Orlandini was in charge of die casting production and manufacturing. By 1985, Jeff Orlandini took over the control of Pacific. The annual sales at Pacific were declining for the years of 1981 to 1987.
In the early 1990s, the Orlandini's moved Pacific from the 20,000 foot building in Paramount to a 40,000 foot building in the City of Commerce.
In 1987, Bob Thomas was training sales people for The Dale Carnegie Organization. Pacific had sales of under $1,000,000 and Vince wanted growth. They placed an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times Classified for a die casting salesman and Bob called Pacific for the job. Vince hired Bob because he was familiar with the Dale Carnegie organization. Jeff was running Pacific, so Bob worked for Jeff. Bob's pay was a small salary of $12 per hour, ($25,000 per year) and a 2.5% commission on new die casting sales.
Before Bob was hired on at Pacific Die Casting Company, the best year of annual sales was just over two million dollars. Bob was hired September 1, 1987. The Pacific annual sales for 1987 were $1,500,000. The first full year Bob sold die casting parts for Pacific, in 1988, Bob had increased the annual sales to $2,621,000. With Bob's help, the Pacific annual sales grew to over five million dollars ($5,000,000) by 1992.
The largest new die casting customers that Bob got for Pacific were Kim Lighting, to make large die casting lighting fixtures. Several concrete roof tile companies, such as Lifetile, Monier, Eagle, Pioneer, Westile, Hanson and Boral roofing tile companies to make aluminum roofing tile molds. Pacific made hundreds of thousands of aluminum roofing tile molds for several millions of dollars over the years.
From 1987 to 1993, Bob was paid a 2.5% commission on new sales, that amount in 1992 was over $87,000 and his annual salary was at $25,000 making his total income over $100,000 for the year 1992. He was let go from Pacific Die Casting. Bob's last day at Pacific was February 12th 1993. At the time Bob (me), felt that being let go was a horrible experience but in retrospect, being let go from Pacific was the best thing to have happened to me. Joe Orlandini started working at Pacific Die Casting in January 1982 and he was let go in March 2016.
Pacific Die Casting Company has been in business since 1951. They were one of the few remaining die casting companies in California.
(Newsletter: https://www.kineticdiecasting.com/kdc/southern-california-usa-die-casting-companies-2025/).
I, Bob Thomas, am personally saddened with this bad news. The Orlandini family have struggled a lot over the last few years to keep the California Die Casting Operations going. I wish them a lot of luck in their future endeavors.
Kinetic Die Casting Company would not currently be in business if Pacific Die Casting Company was never owned by the Orlandini family. Vince Orlandini hired Bob Thomas in 1987, Jeff Orlandini let Bob Thomas go in February 1993, and then Bob Thomas founded Kinetic Die Casting Company the following year in July 1994. Thank you, Jeff.
A message to all the former Pacific Die Casting Company customers that do not want to buy parts from Mexico and want to keep their manufacturing business in California, feel free to send us your die casting tooling so we can make your die casting parts. We can make die casting parts from a few ounces to up to 10 pounds. We can run thousands of parts or a few hundred parts, if only a few hundred parts are needed. We make aluminum die casting parts and zinc die casting parts.
Feel free to call us or email us with your request for quote. You can also use our online request for quote form for die casting parts prices (https://www.kineticdiecasting.com/replyform.html).
Our contact information is as follows:
Bob Thomas, President
Kinetic Die Casting Company (www.kineticdc.com)
6918 Beck Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91605
sales@kineticdc.com 818-982-9200
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