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years old at the time.
"When we started, there were just myself and four people," Caissie said. "When you start a business you have to do
everything. My wife worked here for awhile to get it going. We had young kids and a young family, and the kids are now
involved in the business. Now we have about 800 employees throughout the system."
Imperial Manufacturing has five plants in Canada and opened operations in the U.S. about 10 years ago in Hamel due to a
relationship with a marketing representative who lived at Holiday Shores in northern Madison County. The company began with
just 6,000 square feet in Hamel but gradually grew the building to about 60,000 square feet as U.S. demand for its products
grew.
Last year it became evident to Imperial management executives that they were going to have to move into a much larger
facility to keep up with the company's growth. Caissie said overtures were made by various communities and states, including
an offer to move across the Mississippi River to a location in Missouri, but that the Alton alternative came out on top. The
reason? People.
"Our people are at the very core of what we do at Imperial," said Brad Spencer, vice president of U.S. sales operations
for Imperial Manufacturing. "We've built this manufacturing business around them, starting with just two or three people 10
years ago in Hamel - and today we're at 65 to 75 people here in Alton. We expect to reach 100 by year's end. It's a
challenge today in manufacturing to find good people and to keep them. We realize and appreciate who and what we have."
Caissie says people are the secret to any successful business. He says that the five people who started with him 28 years
ago are still with him, and now he is employing second generations of families. So when it came time to move from Hamel, he
wanted to stay close in order to keep the people who helped him grow the business there - and he wanted the small-town
atmosphere that he found in Alton.
"Alton reminds me a bit of where we first started in the small town of New Brunswick," said Caissie. "It reminds me sort
of the same culture, where you want to feel part of an organization that really appreciates what you're doing. You
appreciate the employees, you pay them well, good benefits and at the end of the day you know that you've accomplished
something. We have facilities in bigger cities and it's not the same culture as a smaller town."
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Imperial will be manufacturing galvanized furnace duct connectors, stovepipe, adjustable-elbow stovepipe and stove heat
shields at the Alton plant. Some of its major customers are Lowe's Home Improvement, True Value Hardware, Ace Hardware and
Tractor Supply Co. Spencer says the Alton plant will supply about 90 percent of its customers in the U.S.
The company's move to Alton was assisted by an economic development package administered by the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity. It includes Economic Development for a Growing Economy or "EDGE" corporate income tax
credits over the next 10 years, based on job creation and retention; Employer Training Investment Program job training funds
that will include machinery, safety and performance related programs; and additional financial benefits, such as sales tax
exemptions and tax credits for job creation and retention, resulting from the company's location within an Enterprise Zone.
Earlier this year, American Water Co., the largest water services provider in North America, added approximately 16,000
square feet to its national customer service center at Alton Center Business Park. This was the company's second major
expansion at the site, with American Water now employing approximately 500 at the center and occupying a total of slightly
more than 65,000 square feet.
Alton Center Business Park is a 150-acre, mixed-use development located at the foot of the Lewis and Clark Bridge at the
intersection of Illinois Rte. 143 and Broadway. The redevelopment of the abandoned Owens-Illinois Co. glass plant, it was a
2001 Phoenix Award winner for Community Impact at the National Brownfield Conference. According to Mike Clark, president of
Clark Properties Inc., developer of the park, the goal from the beginning was to restore the site as a major center of
Illinois commerce. With the addition of Imperial Manufacturing Group and American Water Co.'s expansion, nearly 600 jobs
will have been created at the park.
"Alton and Alton Center Business Park is a good fit for us," said Spencer. "Once we hooked up with Clark Properties, it
was great. They've been really good to us, hooking us up with all the right people and making it happen. And the city of
Alton has just been incredible."
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