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____________________________________________ Hercules Manufacturing Co.
▼ Justin Wilson, President
Caddick family, relocated to Henderson, Kentucky, in 1957. Its previous owner, Jeffrey Caddick, introduced Justin to the business at age 19.“ At the time, I worked in IT and had a chance encounter with Jeffrey helping him resolve a customer service issue,” continues Justin.“ He asked for my business card and said he was going to hire me in 30 days!” Twelve years, several roles, and one 18-month stint as President operating the company for the Caddick family, Justin purchased the business outright in January 2024 – becoming the first owner outside the Caddick family in over six decades.
“ Today, we’ re a high-spec, low-volume manufacturer. We go out to the customers, understand their operations, and build something tailored to their specific fleet rather than expecting them to fit our core products. That approach has kept us successful for over a century,” says Justin.“ Our custom manufacturing capabilities let us build to spec for a wide range of customers in both insulated and dry freight markets. Some of the core businesses we work with are foodservice and dairy distributors. Whatever the application, our operations are flexible enough to build just about anything a straight truck might need.”
Justin explains that diversifying Hercules’ customer base has been a key focal point in driving evolution within the company:“ We’ ve traditionally been fleet-heavy, building for national accounts with 50 to 2000 trucks, but we have since made a push back into‘ mom and pop’ business too – smaller customers replacing one to five trucks at a time. We still have that
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