Crenlo moves HQ to Bentonville from Minneapolis
Amid a plethora of retail suppliers that have set up shop in Bentonville, a cab manufacturer has selected the home of the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer as its new headquarters.
Crenlo Engineered Cabs recently relocated its corporate office from Minneapolis to Bentonville as part of its next phase of growth. It’s leasing office space on the fifth floor of Ledger and plans to expand as it adds staff.
The company makes cabs for off-highway vehicles and heavy-duty equipment, such as bulldozers, tractors, garbage trucks and oil rigs. Key clients include Bobcat, Caterpillar, JCB, JLG and John Deere.
Crenlo Engineered Cabs was formed in 2019 through a merger of Crenlo Cab Products and Worthington Industries Engineered Cabs after Los Angeles-based investment firm Angeles Equity Partners acquired both companies. This allowed Crenlo to focus on its core business of manufacturing cabs.
CEO Stephen Pridmore said its cabs are made in about 1.5 million square feet of manufacturing space at plants in Minnesota, South Dakota and Tennessee. Each plant operates similarly in terms of what it can produce and shares the work for its largest customers. Crenlo produces about 30,000 cabs annually, which are delivered to customers worldwide.
“If you’re going by any of these rental companies that rent out any kind of heavy-duty equipment, we’re probably making the cabs that go on most of the stuff that you see there,” Pridmore said. “And then a lot of the stuff just on the side of the road that you see work in construction and doing road work and stuff, we probably make the cabs that go on that equipment as well.”
ROAD TO BENTONVILLE
Pridmore joined Crenlo in 2023 as chief commercial officer. He transitioned to chief operating officer within a year and became president last year. He started as CEO in January. He’s lived in Northwest Arkansas for about 14 years.
“It’s such a unique area because you’ve got these … global leader companies that are here,” he said. “And then a lot of companies that supply into them. It’s a unique place because it’s got still a smaller town feel based on where you live, and yet you’ve got access to resources and people here.”
He previously worked for Novi, Mich.-based die-casting manufacturer Pace Industries, which relocated its headquarters from Fayetteville to Michigan in 2021. Pace Industries, a major supplier to the auto industry, was established in 1970 in Harrison and expanded into 17 plants across North America. Pridmore was chief operating officer when he left Pace Industries. He said he came to see the value of having a headquarters in Northwest Arkansas after working there.
“One, you’re kind of in the middle of the country, so it’s fairly easy to get to just about anywhere in a reasonable amount of time,” he said. “One of the things I like about this area is you have access to high-level talent … I like being here and having relationships with people that are kind of the movers and shakers in the community here who can help you vet talent or give you insight … And I think it’s an attractive area, and so a lot of the folks that were already part of our corporate team that have gotten acquainted over the last year or so with this area are like, ‘Man, I would live there.’”
Some will relocate to Northwest Arkansas. Others visit frequently. The aim is to expand the staff to more than 20 here by early 2027. The company has more than 700 employees and is expected to exceed 1,000 to support its growth plans over the next 12 months.
Another factor that led Crenlo to move its headquarters to Northwest Arkansas is that the state is business-friendly, Pridmore said. He also noted the area amenities that have been added due to investments by large companies, such as bike trails, performing arts venues, and Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA).
Crenlo is investing $2.5 million annually to move its headquarters here, and the company is saving money as a result.
“We looked at it more from a business case of what we felt like we could save coming from Minneapolis to this area,” Pridmore said. “It felt like there was a payback there of having our headquarters here.”
GROWTH PLANS, GOALS
Pridmore’s growth plans include the merger and acquisition of companies that have “products that would make sense to kind of bolt onto what we do today, and we’ve explored even actually looking at a couple of those even now.” The company also looks to expand operations at its existing plants.
Pridmore said the company’s revenue is projected to grow by 20% annually over the next two to three years. The growth is mostly going to come from “business that has been landed over the last couple of years that will launch, and then some market recovery and market growth that we’ll see with our current products that we already have today.
“We’re poised for significant growth,” he said. “I would say probably the largest growth in the history of the company over the next two to three years. And we’ve been repositioning our team to be able to support that growth in a way that’s consistent with customers’ expectations.”
Crenlo’s focus is on cab manufacturing, and a large part of its business is in service and aftermarket parts. It provides product service up to 20-25 years after production ends. The aftermarket parts include accessories, doors, and replacement parts for the company’s equipment. The service and aftermarket business can support the company’s growth. Crenlo is also looking to grow its fabrication business.
“The addressable market for fabrication dwarfs the cab market in North America,” he said. “Even though the cab market’s sizable, we’re … the largest supplier by a long shot in the cab market in North America. But the fab market for us is wide open.”
First, the company looks to provide fabrication services for its existing customers before branching out into new markets and serving those with complex fabrication needs. He said the company could serve the power generation sector’s fabrication needs without changing its existing operations.
“We’re mostly focused on cabs, but that’s a part of the business we want to build out and kind of grow as a vertical is the fabrication side because we do probably more fabrication today than most because every cab that we make is fabricated in-house,” he said.
DESIGN, BUILD
Pridmore said something that sets Crenlo apart from other cab manufacturers is that it designs about 60% of what it builds.
John Wisdom, director of strategic business development, said Crenlo can work with customers to design and build cabs from scratch to completion. The company can build prototypes for testing and help ensure the cab will work for customers as they build new products before scaling production.
The company is also unique in that it has three U.S. plants, each between 400,000 and 500,000 square feet, that support high-volume production.
Wisdom also highlighted the company’s ability to finish products, including painting them. He said the company makes its cabs using a combination of humans and robots, which creates a safe environment for its employees and increases production speed and accuracy. The robots can weld components while handling and moving them.
Pridmore said the company uses robotic automation for its high-volume work. Its employees handle the more complex work that requires more attention to detail.
“There’s cabs we make that are a quarter-million dollars a year that are not super high volume, but the level of installation and assembly required from HVAC units … We assemble all that stuff in the cab and then deliver it plug-and-play to the customers,” Pridmore said. “They basically just install it on a chassis.”
It often makes cabs for skid steers, compact machines with front-end loaders, and telehandlers, which offer the extended reach of a crane and the lifting capacity of a forklift. Both machines are used in the construction and agriculture industries. Pridmore said the cabs can be either open or enclosed. The company ensures that its enclosed, climate-controlled cabs are airtight.
“We do cabs for extreme weather or extreme conditions … cold and underground,” he said.
The company also makes cabs for motor graders and terminal trucks, including electric ones. About 35% of the company’s business comes from the construction industry, and the off-highway truck sector accounts for an additional 30-35%. The remainder is spread out across agriculture, defense, forestry, mining, and oil and gas.
“We have a level of finished capability tovgo from zero … where we cut the steel and bend it and form it and weld it, and then all the way into they literally plug-and-play that cab onto their chassis and onto their equipment,” Pridmore said.