Holdrege, Neb.-based Allmand Bros. is celebrating its 75-year anniversary in 2012. Founded in 1938 in a small garage in Huntley, Neb., Allmand Bros., now in its third generation of Allmand family leadership, has grown to become an industry leader in portable lighting, heating and traffic safety equipment.
In the midst of the Great Depression and unable to afford a new arc welder for their repair shop, brothers Leslie and Walter Allmand built their own. It worked so well that their neighbors asked the brothers to build welders for them, and the business was born.
In 1954, Allmand developed the Contractor’s Lantern, which became the industry’s first portable light tower, the company said. In addition, according to the company, Allmand was the first to use 1,000-watt metal halide lighting in a light tower application, the first to use parallel lamp fixtures and the first to develop and use the high-efficiency SHO compact parallel lamp fixture.
Allmand is also a maker of portable heating equipment such as the Allmand Maxi-Heat self-contained portable heater. In addition, the company produces the Eclipse solar-assisted arrowboard trailer. High-efficiency LED lamps consume less power to allow the Eclipse to operate for as much as a year without needing to be recharged while still meeting all Federal traffic control visibility standards.
For more information on Allmand Bros., visit www.allmand.com.
