Caldwell is a 70-year Rockford and USA success story — and it was always destined to be that way, says Doug Stitt, the company’s president and CEO.
The manufacturing hotbed of Rockford is located in the center of the state of Illinois, about 20 miles south of the Wisconsin border.
Illinois and Wisconsin both have manufacturing at heart, while Rockford itself is one point of a triangle with Milwaukee and Chicago, which were key notches on the original rust belt.
Rockford, on the banks of the Rock River, is home to household names, such as Woodward Governor, Fairbanks Morse Defense, and ABC Supply; and Caterpillar, Komatsu, Boeing, John Deere, and Grainger, have established footprints in wider Illinois.
“It’s actually pretty cool when you look at the history of the area because Rockford is a long-time manufacturing city. It’s not at the same level it was but there is still a huge industrial base. Walk through any World War Two museum and you’ll see kit produced by Woodward Governor, Fairbanks Morse, and others. Those companies are still here operating today. We’re part of it; Caldwell is a Rockford and USA story,” adds Stitt, who grew up 15 minutes north of the city and, other than a comparatively short stay elsewhere in Illinois, has always lived and worked in the area. Having left college and entered the banking sector, he quickly realized his future lay elsewhere.
“I wanted to see things actually being made and used,” he says. “That’s when I moved into manufacturing [and] industrial related businesses — and never looked back. It’s a bit in my blood, I suppose. My grandfather and father were industrial guys in Rockford, who worked their way up in different capacities, and I’m sure a lot of them rubbed off on me.”
There are plenty of kindred spirits in the area. Rockford is a mid-sized city and many of its people are from the town; larger cities tend to be more transient by nature and attract visitors. Stitt talks about a “natural nostalgia” of where a company started, as businesses in many cases played an important role in the town and community.
He adds, “Nothing against Illinois, but I think we associate our business with where we are — Rockford; and where our customers are — the U.S. While we certainly have customers in Illinois, much of our business is spread out nationally.
Further, we are one of those ‘local’ U.S. companies that prides itself on producing its products here in the states.
“As a solutions provider, we are going where those challenges are. Some are in Illinois; many are in other regions of North America, where our primary business is. The remainder is more project based in other parts of the world. Oftentimes, it’s a company or subsidiary of someone we’ve dealt with [in North America].”
It’s true that American businesses are among those that identify with their origins; how often do you see a company’s location referenced in a tagline or displayed on signage? The founder of Stitt’s company, Leslie M. Caldwell, was certainly proud to call Rockford home, thus, he has much in common with today’s ownership. However, the organization is vastly different.
“Mr. Caldwell would likely not recognize Caldwell today,” says Stitt. “When he started the business, it was primarily a fabricator of slings — so sewing machines versus today’s welding machines. The next owner [Howard Will] moved it into fabricated steel lifting products and spun off the sling business, which became very successful as Rockford Rigging. The same goal has endured across time — to help people safely and efficiently lift things — but a different means from where we started to where we are today.
“Caldwell is a great American story of people and entrepreneurship,” continues Stitt. “Like any business, it had to overcome many early challenges in a lack of resources and personnel. It has moved from one type of business [slings] into a completely different company [lifting]. Think about all of the cycles, recessions, meltdowns, pandemics.
“That’s why we’re celebrating 70 years so wholeheartedly.”
Manufacturing focus
Rockford’s manufacturing power was celebrated recently in delivery of a custom system for rotating a track section during manufacture of the world’s most powerful telescope.
Caldwell was one of several local businesses, including milling specialist, Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc., that delivered various scopes of work to the Giant Magellan Telescope, an international consortium of leading research institutions.
The 30-meter-class telescope, which will offer 10 times the viewing power of the famous Hubble Space Telescope, is under construction at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best locations on Earth to explore the heavens.
Two more Rockford businesses were also involved. Circle Boring & Machine Company was subcontracted for machining the swivel and landing assemblies after heavy structural welding at Caldwell. Powder coating was then provided by Safeway Products before final assembly with high torque specs on the hoist rings. Quality control inspections preceded packaging for shipping and loading onto an Ingersoll truck. Caldwell’s engineering team was also responsible for creating the product manual.
“Many people probably didn’t know Rockford or were surprised that we were supporting that type of installation,” beams Stitt. “Even companies within Rockford often surprise each other and say, ‘I didn’t know we did that here’. There are so many manufacturers in the area; it’s surprising to many what the city supports and creates.
“Any time you’re involved in this type of application, it always stands out. It’s something the entire company recognizes and is proud of. However, collaboration is often par for the course. Our involvement with the recent [IM-1 mission Nova-C class] lunar lander project was of course part of a big collaboration. As we’re often part of a system, our business is set up to support and foster the type of partnerships needed. Since collaboration and consultation go hand-in-hand, that’s how we’ve built our business and we’re fortunate to have the people and experience to do that.”
Ingersoll is one of numerous local end users of Caldwell products, while Circle Boring and Safeway are vendors of its equipment. Circle Boring and Safeway complete machining and painting respectively for Caldwell. Stitt calls them all, “A piece of our local supply chain. Part of the benefit of being located in the Rockford area, with such a long, rich manufacturing history, is finding quality companies to support our business — it’s easy when there is so much expertise here.”
Expanded footprint
Caldwell recently committed to the addition of 75,000 square feet of warehousing space in Rockford to support the expansion of the business across its Caldwell, RUD, and Renfroebranded products.
Stitt says, “This space and what it allows us to do is critical in supporting our InStock and QuickShip delivery programs. Many companies are limiting service and support options for customers, but we’re doubling down on our ability to take care of our customers and their needs. We’re a locally owned and managed company; we’re fortunate that the Rockford area has been able to continue to support our aspirations. That dynamic may change at some point but Rockford’s location in the center of the country and its industrial base has been a great fit for the last 70 years.”
A great fit, indeed, Caldwell is rooted in Rockford. The future for business is always less certain. Cautious optimism has become the norm in trying to forecast. Add on top of that a presidential election and many companies are working to refine their businesses without significant visibility on where policy is heading today, or tomorrow.
“Business is good,” enthuses Stitt. “Questions about how much and how long this environment will continue are unfortunately dependent on a number of macro factors we can’t control. That’s why we’ll continue to focus on the aspects of our business we can control.
“While there are certainly many challenges facing companies today, the lifting industry has been robust. We see that across our supply chain as well. Those companies we work with to help support our work appear to have solid backlogs and business levels.”
A manufacturers’ association
As the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) states, “For more than 200 years, innovative and ingenious Illinois manufacturers have made the world a better place to live by creating life-saving products, building our infrastructure, transporting people and products around the globe and into space, feeding the world, powering our homes and businesses, developing pioneering technology and communication, and providing for our nation’s defense.”
That’s some claim to fame, but one that was proven recently by the Giant Magellan Telescope and IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander projects, as explored in the main body of this article. Collaborations are key to such successes and, fittingly, the IMA and Caldwell have achieved a lot in partnership, most notably in the development and training of people.
Doug Stitt, president and CEO at Caldwell, says, “There is a big need for training among Rockford and Illinois companies — we need quality, skilled tradespeople — and [IMA] do a great job of supporting those efforts.”
