MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (July 26, 2004) — Trailer buyers in Ontario have a new choice, and at the same time an old one: Pat Dilillo is back in the game.

Dilillo — president and CEO of Mond Industries from 1981 to 1999 when it was bought by Trailmobile — opened Di-Mond Trailers in earlier this year, bringing a custom approach to producing vans, containers, and container chassis.

Remarkably, all 45 employees at the new company had previously worked for Dilillo at Mond or Trailmobile or both. When he announced the startup of his new venture in Mississauga, Ont., they simply came, he says.

In 1999, Mond was Canada’s second largest truck trailer manufacturer with a product line that included dry-freight vans, refrigerated and heated vans, flatbeds, domestic intermodal containers, container chassis, and truck beds. It sold nearly 5,000 trailers that year, its first at a new factory and office complex that is now Trailmobile’s only manufacturing facility.

The new company is working at a smaller scale. “I want to keep it small,” says Dilillo. “There’s a deal out there right now for 1,000 container vans and chassis, but I want only one tenth of it or even less. The most I’ll take on at any one time is 50.

“There’s room in the Ontario market for a niche player, especially now that Manac has closed its plant up in Orangeville.”

Di-Mond will build vans to suit — no cookie-cutter approach here. Drop frames and multiple side doors, for example, are possible. Uniquely, the company’s container chassis is made of galvanized steel. Its vans offer galvanized or stainless steel in key areas. Dilillo says the line may expand to include straight-truck van bodies.

Di-Mond had delivered about 100 trailers when Today’s Trucking spoke with Dilillo recently, with a production rate of two or three a day. He has orders for 50 vans from Brampton, Ont.-based cross-border trucking specialist Forbes-Hewlett, another 50 for Trail-Con Leasing in Mississauga, and 45 containers for Vitran, the Toronto LTL giant. He also has five service bays at his facility on Aerowood Dr., near the truck-intensive intersection of Hwy. 401 and Dixie Road.

Dilillo is targeting private carriers, where a custom approach is more likely. His pricing will be higher than others, but only by $200 to $400 on a $25,000 trailer. And he says he’ll close every deal himself.

For information, call 905/602-9229.