Company Keeps On Building In Its 17th Decade In Business

When Herman Heinrich Knapheide rolled into Quincy, Ill., and established a wagon-building business, the United States was still more than a decade away from the Civil War — and nearly 50 years from the invention of the automobile. 

It was 1848, when settlers were heading west by the thousands. Knapheide, a German immigrant, knew there was a clear market for well-built wagons, and in time established himself and his company as a trusted manufacturer. What he couldn’t have known then, however, was that his name — and his family — would still be manufacturing vehicles in Quincy some 168 years later.

Now one of the best-known names in the service truck industry, the Knapheide Manufacturing Company has spent a century and a half adapting and evolving — and then doing it again and again — to survive and thrive in changing times. From its headquarters in Quincy, the company has moved on from wagons to wagon bodies for Model T Fords and to modern service trucks. 

Six generations on, the company is still growing. Harold W. (Bo) Knapheide IV, senior vice-president of distributor and fleet operations — and the youngest generation to help guide the company — said that’s because years of tradition build an unusual kind of strength.

“There’s a lot of passion in our company and a lot of pride,” he said. “When you have that, you and your people can do amazing things.” 

Network expands beyond Illinois

From its position in the heart of the United States, the Knapheide family quickly began to build a network to distribute its products far beyond Illinois and the Midwest. By the turn of the 20th century, when the company was in the hands of the second generation — Henry E. Knapheide — it was becoming a modern, world-known presence. It had a catalog boasting 30 models of wagons and distributed to buyers in places as far as South America and Africa.

As the country began to develop its roads — and the powered vehicles to go on them — the Knapheides recognized that they’d have to keep up. Under a third generation (Harold W. Knapheide,) the company began manufacturing Model T service bodies. In the depths of the Great Depression, the company adapted again, focusing on truck repairs when few people were buying. 

Over the next several decades, the company refocused itself on manufacturing, and by the 1970s (under a fourth generation) Knapheide had carved out a position as the largest farm truck body manufacturer in the country.

Progress, however, was never simple. A major flood in the 1970s, the farm-market crash of the 1980s, and a second flood emergency in 1993 — which swamped an entire production facility — amounted to considerable setbacks. 

“When the family farm went away, that was a real crisis for the country,” said Jim Bockenfeld, the company’s vice-president of sales. “Hap Knapheide had the foresight that the small family farm might not be around by the time the 1990s rolls around.”

Looking back, Bo Knapheide said that with enough perspectives, a company and its leaders develop a critical kind of perspective. “When you look back on our history, every hard period we went through was followed by really good things happening,” he said. “When things get tough, we always just get better.”

Multiple generations and counting

The sixth-generation Knapheide started working for the company early, as one might expect. With the guidance of his father, Harold W. (Knap) Knapheide III, Bo Knapheide learned all the trades of the business: welding, working in the loading dock, doing mounting and installation. 

Working alongside the company’s employees, he discovered that he wasn’t the only one with a long family line at Knapheide. “We have many people who are multiple generations, many people who have cousins that work in there, sons that work in there, and that’s really special,” he said. 

Company leaders from outside the Knapheide family said there’s a reason people stick around. The company is a major employer in town, providing good, steady jobs. Quincy, a city of about 45,00 people, has been around for 175 years, which means that Knapheide has been there for almost all of Quincy’s history. The company is a longtime contributor to community programs, both in donations of time and money. 

But employees said there’s also something to the idea of a company that considers its workers part of the family. 

Bockenfeld, started out as a regional sales manager nearly three decades ago. In his years with Knapheide, he said, he’s seen the company protect workers and look to the future when times were toughest — as in the recession that hit the country in recent years.

“Back in 2009 and 2010, when (others) in the industry were pulling their reigns in, we went out and launched a whole new product line of industrial products, work-ready mechanics trucks, lube trucks, water trucks,” he said. 

The company also benefited by building a distribution network that mirrored its own structure: places run by families, with long traditions and an understanding of Knapheide’s products and history. 

“A lot of the distribution outlets that we have are independent, family-owned businesses, much like Knapheide,” Bockenfeld said. “There’s a common structure and relationship, no question about that.”

Business and staff numbers booming

Today, Knapheide builds a wide-ranging product line, from traditional service bodies to platform bodies, fuel lube trucks, water trucks and forestry bodies. It provides the vehicles and bodies used by electricians, farmers, miners, utility crews and pest-control businesses. 

Nearly all the manufacturing is still done in Quincy, though the company has a diverse and growing distribution network elsewhere. Since Knapheide is a privately held company, it doesn’t share sales numbers. But Bockenfeld said recent years have been booming, as the company has considerably expanded its staff.

According to Mandar Dighe, Knapheide’s vice-president of marketing, the company’s staff now numbers around 1,200 people in 18 locations. 

“What’s kind of neat about Knapheide right now, having experienced the growth, is just walking around the place and seeing all the new hires, the bright young people,” Dighe said. “It’s really satisfying.” 

He said part of the reason the company has remained both successful and a draw for new workers is because of its interest in being ready for the next big thing – even when it’s years away.

The company has learned that giving distributors more variety provides more of an incentive to make brisk sales. 

“The more variety they can order from us, the quicker they can justify having a delivery truck come out,” he said. “Service bodies with platforms, hauler bodies and pickup toppers and dump bodies are things we’ve gotten into beyond a single product line.”

Dighe said the company has also worked hard to focus its message, from its slogan (“never settle”) to its branding. 

“The big thing that drives our local markets, whether it’s in Dallas or Portland, Oregon, is that our logo is consistent across the entire Knapheide enterprise,” he said. “And the fact that it includes “since 1848” really includes people who don’t know anything about our company. There’s just a natural story that comes out of that.”

Next generation in the wings

Now, the challenge facing Knapheide is about the next part of the story. While Bo Knapheide’s three children are still all under the age of 11, he said he’s certain the family tradition will live on. 

“Henry’s four, and he doesn’t know it yet, but when he turns five he’ll start welding,” he joked. 

Dighe said it’s clear the company will need to continue to prepare for ups and downs by diversifying its products and expertise. Plus, he said, it can never be content to rest on past successes, no matter how many years Knapheide gets under its work belt. 

“One of the biggest challenges internally is getting past the ‘this is how we’ve always done it,’” Dinghe said. “When we think about it and say: ‘We never settle,’ we’re never going to settle for just accepting how it was done.”

Erin Golden is a journalist in Minnesota

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