Rainier Industries Ltd. started selling tents and canvas products to miners headed for the Alaska Gold Rush in 1896. Rainier continues to manufacture military tents, frame tents, recreational tents and custom tents; however, the product lines have increased dramatically since the early days. Besides commercial and residential awnings, semi-rigid window systems for yachts, yurts (build your own online at www.rainieryurts.com), and custom designed tensile structures and pre-engineered fabric buildings, Rainier has become an industry leader in large format graphics. 

These high impact graphics are ideal for trade show exhibits, ball stadiums, point-of-purchase displays, vehicle graphics and promotional banners. Large capacity printers output designs on vinyl, canvas, mesh, wallpaper, adhesive and other materials. Rainier is a full-service solution center from design to installation.

Recent examples of Rainier’s capabilities are prominent at the University of North Carolina (UNC) stadium (see photos on back page). Originally UNC wanted to make the stadium more attractive by placing a banner along the existing railing. Rainier designed, manufactured, and installed a 4’ by 500’ banner to honor players; and made a suggestion to liven up the concrete columns. By using photos from the client, Rainier designed graphics that were printed on large sheets of adhesive material. The columns were prepped for the material, which was cut and trimmed to fit each column.

“Our client was surprised with what they could accomplish on a relatively small budget with the technology we have,” said Bruce Dickinson, Vice President, Sales at Rainier. “The combination of applying graphics to untraditional material is what makes our company unique—we’re not just an awning or graphics company.”

The manufacturing capabilities have become so sophisticated that they are referred to as fabric engineers and recognized internationally for their innovative fabric solutions. Rainier has provided industrial fabric solutions for aerospace, military, manufacturing, marine, environmental, fishing and petroleum industries, plus others!

Rainier purchased AddonSoftware in 1984 when they were Puget Sound Tent and Awning. Joe Taylor, President of MASI commented, “Our relationship with Rainier Industries is a perfect example of our business objective, which is to have long term, mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. We not only deeply appreciate this relationship, but I believe we are more effective for them because of it. Their success has been a real joy to witness and be a part of.”

Rainier upgraded to AddonSoftware version 7.0 in December 2004. “The graphical user interface is why we chose to upgrade,” remarked Andrew King, Vice President, Finance at Rainier. Employees now have a choice to use the older character-based software or the new graphical version. Also, employees familiar with the older character-based interface are still able to use it. Rainier added more user licenses in 2004 and again this year.

“We’re at the limit of our 35-user license now,” commented King. Of the 140 Rainier employees, most work in manufacturing where there are 10 data collection terminals for people to log their time. The Data Collection module integrates with Shop Floor Control, which is essential software for this custom manufacturer.

“Addon is solid software and adaptable to our needs. The great people we work with at MASI made us want to continue using it. All we’ve dealt with have been quality people,” explained King. “Josie [Markham, Senior Programmer/Analyst] is our lead programmer. She’s great to work with and very responsive. She also provides great suggestions. I’ll often think I know what we need, and she’ll ask me if I’ve considered another way. She understands our business as well as thoroughly knowing Addon.”

Besides the people, King likes that it’s easy to export information from AddonSoftware into standard office applications. For instance, exporting data from General Ledger and Sales Analysis into Excel allows him to compile other reports efficiently and present data how he wants to view it. Rainier salespeople use GoldMine for customer relationship management software. All basic information such as order status and invoices is exported from AddonSoftware to GoldMine and salespeople manage their accounts in an integrated system.

Dickinson commented on AddonSoftware, “I love it! I use it everyday. It’s vital to our success as a company and we continually access information about our jobs. It’s vital to pricing—when I’m doing this same project two years down the road, I’ll have the information from this project.”

Brian Rowinski, Vice President, Operations at Rainier remarked that with the upgrade they can keep ongoing data which is important for production to see which materials were used in the past. As the Operations Manager, he’s able to view the gross profit report by product, salesperson, and project manager to help him evaluate divisional performance. And with eight divisions, that makes his job easier!

From displays to high flying banners to yurts, Rainier has the experience and expertise to execute the most exacting projects. Design, engineering, permitting, manufacturing and installation are all included, and Rainier has the capacity and equipment in two buildings (100,000 square feet) located south of Seattle.