Quincy manufacturer Craig Industries set to mark 40 years in operation

Published 4:22 pm Thursday, July 2, 2026

QUINCY — By any reasonable calculation, 40 years for a business is a milestone achievement that’s deserving of recognition.

That’s exactly what Quincy’s Craig Industries will be doing in August as the company’s US Cooler division celebrates four decades in business and now an industry leader in cold storage solutions.

The company was created by Ellis Craig in 1986 and continues to be a family-owned and -operated manufacturer based in one of the older parts of Quincy. The corporate offices are located inside the city’s old Engine 4 fire station at Fourth and Delaware.

The company purchased the 130-plus year old building in 2008 and has renovated it into a modern workspace to handle the international trade that Craig Industries deals in.

Joshua Craig is the current vice president for operations at the company, which has grown from the US Cooler as a foundation brand to a line of custom-constructed and pre-fabricated building products. He said that the old fire house is representative of the family’s love for Quincy.

“We’re not actually from Quincy,” Craig said. We’re from Pike County down by New Canton, where we grew up. But we really love history, and we really love the history of Quincy. We love the old buildings, so we try to restore and redo as many as we possibly can.”

That’s just one aspect of how Craig Industries has expanded and deepened connections within Quincy. What started as a small local manufacturer has expanded to a global operation, though Craig did note that majority of the company’s clients are based in the U.S.

“We sell all across the world,” he said. “We have stuff going to Palau, we have stuff going to Mexico, we ship to Alaska all the time.”

Craig said clients from across the country and around the world have shared how much they love Quincy once they get to visit.

“When guests come to Quincy, they tell us how great our town is,” he said. “They love the architecture driving down Maine Street. They love all the local restaurants. And they’re always impressed with where we’re at and how we do things in such a small environment.”

The US Cooler division which the company started with has grown to a facility covering roughly 58,000 square feet. Along with US Cooler, Craig Industries is the home of modular structure brand Enviro Buildings, which includes Eden Growrooms, Winekeep and Brew Cave brand storage products, and the ReFridge Walk-In Cooler Parts retailer for parts and accessories.

One of the things that makes the company stand out, even among other manufactures, is the physical location. Rather than expanding out to areas in the growing northeast industrial areas of Quincy, Craig Industries is housed close to the river on the city’s historic southwest side.

Craig said the Great River Economic Development Foundation, or GREDF, played a big part in helping the fledgling company find a home in Quincy.

“When my dad and uncle were starting the business, they looked at multiple locations,” he said. “They looked at Pittsfield and Barry and that area. But I think it was due to GREDF back then that incentivized them to work and be here.”

With a number of employees coming from outside the city, Craig said the location works well, and the expected improvements along Ill. 57 and the anticipated new bridge across the Mississippi River are bright spots on the horizon.

“That’ll help with trucking,” he said. “And obviously for our employees getting to and from work. A lot of them actually come from Pike County, a lot of them come from from Missouri, so that will definitely benefit them.”

Even as the company prepares to celebrate the past with the anniversary in August, Craig said the company continues to look at growing. The current expansion project will move the majority of the pre-fabrication products to a new facility inside the former Midwest Block & Brick building at Sixth and State. That expansion also goes back to the family’s love of and passion for the preservation of historic structures.

“We’re in the process of remodeling that whole property specifically for the preassembled building products, the Enviro Buildings lines,” Craig said. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t be offering some preassembled coolers and freezers as well out of that facility, but it’s primarily for our Enviro Buildings brand.”

While some structures did have to be complete removed due to safety concerns, Craig said as much of the original property as possible will be repurposed.

“The only buildings that we’ve tore down were the ones that were basically structurally unsound,” he said. “The old Midwest Block and Brick building will stay, and then there’s a 5000 square foot metal building in the back that will also stay. We’re going to basically join those two together with a new metal building.”

The preservation aspect not only comes through in the Craig Industries operation, but also in another business that Craig owns and operates, the Quincy Brewing Company. It’s a personal passion that drives him in both aspects of his professional life.

“I can only speak for myself, but it makes me really sad when I see old buildings that were built in the 1800s being torn down and getting dilapidated,” he said. “It’s sad to see them torn down, so we try to save every one of them that we can. That obviously works with our business.”

With forty years of history now in the books, Craig said that he doesn’t see any future that would have Craig Industries moved out of Quincy. He said that’s something he wouldn’t want to see for his immediate family, or for the family of employees that have been raised within the company.

“We love Quincy,” he said. “We (even) love Illinois, though we don’t love, obviously, everything that’s going on with our government. But we love where we’re at, a we love our people. The people in Quincy are great, it’s a great community, and we really don’t see ourselves going anywhere from here.

“This is (Craig Industries’) only location,” he added. Our families are all here. We’re a family business and we like to we like to think that we adopt a lot of our employees and they become family as well. So we know we’re not leaving our family, that’s for sure.”