Inside the small-business values mindset propelling Hercules forward as one of Kentucky’s oldest truck body manufacturers
When Justin Wilson, President of Kentucky-based truck body manufacturer Hercules Manufacturing Co. (Hercules), swaps the boardroom for the shop floor on a busy day to help his team push through a production snag, it explains a great deal about how the company has managed to quadruple its business in under three years.
His philosophy is simple. “Don’t lead a company you’d be afraid to work in,” Justin relays. “If you understand the struggles from top to bottom, you can build the confidence within your team to carry ideas forward independently.” This illustrates the way the company has grown – not through a new product or a market windfall, but by rebuilding how it treats the people who build the trucks.
With roots tracing back to 1902, Hercules began building horse-drawn buggies in Evansville, Indiana, and built its first mechanically refrigerated truck body in the 1930’s. The company, operated under the 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 small-business feel, and we can make a real difference in a relationship for someone making a purchase that’s genuinely life-changing to them.” This level of customer service goes hand-in-hand with after-sale support, which is integral to driving sales as well as nurturing client relationships. “You can’t always plan for what might happen once one of our truck bodies makes it out into the field! A lot of things can happen when it’s traveling down the road at 70 mph and it could encounter anything from wrecks to breakdowns – we take the extra step to help the customer, because our priority is getting their asset back on the road and making money; we sort out the rest later.”
Alongside its dedication to customer care, Hercules leans heavily into a small-business value mindset and takes care of employees on a deeper level – whether that’s a professional need or something personal. “I was given an incredible opportunity at a young age to own a business like this, and my core value is creating that same opportunity for others – our team, their families and our community,” emphasizes Justin, explaining how this culture is not only a major driver in quadrupling the business over the past two to three years, but also plays a huge part in its longevity of 124 years. “We’re not a contract-based business – everything runs on a handshake – so integrity and going above and beyond for customers and team members alike matter enormously,” highlights Justin.
The company has also rolled out a big change that it will continue implementing over the next six months; it has started running production seven days a week, in preparation to open up capacity. “The market has been a little soft, but we’re making these changes six to 18 months ahead of need, so we’re ready when demand picks up and can gain market share by being prepared rather than reactive,” reveals Justin. “We’re also investing heavily in new equipment and technology to expand capacity and improve efficiency. We’re focused now on the quality of customer we bring in, not just quantity – building relationships that will carry us for the next ten to 20 years. Our target is to roughly double revenue again within three years, aligning sales, marketing, and production to make this happen.
“Ultimately, we want to be a cornerstone within our sector – a brand people trust for doing the right thing and building the best-quality product on the market. We’ve hit a lot of milestones and made some remarkable achievements, but we’re far from the finish line,” he concludes. “We’re going to keep pushing, keep growing, and keep investing in building this company into a powerhouse within the industry.”
