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June 11, 2002
Growing Accurately
Owner finds room for his expanding enterprise in centrally
located business park.
Brian Franks, Staff Writer
From floor to
ceiling, trailer hitches envelop several storage rooms. Against the
back wall of one, custom-made heavy-duty hitches are stacked neatly
on a palate. On the shelves to the left and right, 1,000-pound to
90,000-pound capacity hitches await a coat of black paint.
But what Sol Raviv is most proud of is the fact that construction
has finally begun on his new shop, a 24,000-square-foot, two-story
building on 1.8 acres in the Centre Pointe Business Park, located
directly behind his current 12,000-square-foot facility.
“I’ve been after this lot for 10 years,” Raviv said. “They wouldn’t
sell it to me because it was part of the complex. Then Larry
Rasmussen bought it and sold the lot to me.”
Raviv designs,
manufactures, sells and services all types of hitches. After more
than 20 years in business — 14 as owner and founder of Accurate
Trailer Hitch & Welding Inc. in Santa Clarita — Raviv said he still
enjoys participating in the daily process of servicing and selling
hitches.
“There is always
something to do,” Raviv said. “There is no such thing as nothing to
do.”
Accurate Trailer Hitch specializes in custom-made trailer hitches,
fifth-wheel installation, brakes, wiring, tow bars, transmission
coolers, steel fabricating, bicycle, motorcycle and snow ski
carriers and all types of welding.
“No one in
California has what we do,” he said. “I don’t believe in being in
business and ordering stuff. If we sell it, we have it in stock.”
Born in Israel,
Raviv came to California in the late 1970s. After studying
engineering at Los Angeles City College, Raviv moved to Windsor,
Ontario, Canada, to be a partner in a trailer-hitch business.
But after a few years, he said he began to dislike the fact that
Windsor was extremely dependent on the automobile industry.
“There was a cycle
of ups and downs,” he said. “The town would grow and shrink. That’s
good for the real estate industry, but not for my business.” By the
late 1980s he began looking at starting a new business in
California. “I was driving down the freeway and saw all the
construction and the potential for growth,” he said. “Everyone had
boats and trailers.”
In 1988, he sold
his Canadian business interest and opened Accurate Trailer Hitch in
Santa Clarita.
“I was the first tenant in the complex,” he said. “There wasn’t even
electricity when I first moved into the building.”
Raviv said his
business was an immediate hit. “Business kept growing and growing,”
he said.
Within a few years he added seven welders and moved from his
original 1,300-square-foot unit to a facility almost 10 times
larger.
“It’s not unusual
for someone to drive two hours for one of our hitches,” he said.
Three years ago Accurate Trailer Hitch out grew its
12,000-square-foot building and Raviv said he began looking to move
without going outside the area. “I can’t grow anymore without the
new building,” he said.
In May, Accurate
Trailer Hitch broke ground on its new facility, which doubles the
current space and will allow for future expansion. Raviv said the
best part of the new building will be improved customer service.
“We will have more
room ... and 70 parking spaces,” he said, “which will allow us to
offer better customer service.” Construction on the new building is
scheduled to be completed in December.
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