It isn’t every day that someone celebrates their 100th birthday. But earlier this month we got to see just that as Caterpillar celebrated a century in business in a series of events in Peoria and elsewhere across the company’s geography. Locally, I attended a celebration at the Caterpillar Visitors Center that showcased their progress over the past 100 years. This included a really cool machine decked out in a matte gray color vs. the traditional Caterpillar yellow. It can be fashionable to downplay Caterpillar’s significance to Greater Peoria since the headquarters move a few years ago, but doing so is both wrong and creating a self-inflicting wound. The truth is that Caterpillar continues to be a foundational element in our regional economy and should be celebrated, both on its 100th birthday and every other day.
The 2022 “Manufacturing Matters” report of the Illinois Manufacturers Association found that the manufacturing industry generates a total of $17.5 billion in annual economic output in Peoria and Tazewell counties alone, representing nearly 23% and 31%, respectively, of those counties’ Gross Domestic Product. Can you guess the major component in those numbers? Caterpillar. Though a global company with well over 100,000 employees, Caterpillar continues to choose Greater Peoria as the largest center of its employees. On any given day, over 12,000 locals report to a Caterpillar post.
You can see Caterpillar’s footprint across the region in what I sometimes refer to as the Three Ms: Mossville (research and development), Mapleton (foundry), and Morton (logistics). Add in East Peoria (production) and various Peoria facilities (administration, etc.), and you will not find a company with a wider geographic reach than Caterpillar. And while the current global economy has cooled the manufacturing industry a bit, Caterpillar is still investing in its hometown. The Peoria Journal Star recently reported on a story that all of us could kind of see with our own eyes: there is a lot of renovation happening at the “A-H” building in downtown to accommodate new engineering employees.
Caterpillar’s employee count alone would be enough to make other communities envious of Greater Peoria. But the impact is much wider. Think of all the additional companies that rely on Caterpillar’s business to one extent or another. Some are locally based service providers like PHD Services and Federal Companies. Other national firms like Deloitte do so much business with Caterpillar that they have their own offices here. And, of course, an entire supply chain of parts and other services extends the impact even further. This includes homegrown companies like Morton Industries, SMF and Peoria Production Solutions. These companies combined likely employ over 10,000 more employees – all connected in some way to Caterpillar. And the Caterpillar Visitors Center isn’t just a place for birthday parties – it brings in thousands of customers and other partners each year, all of whom are spending money locally at hotels, restaurants, and retail outlets. Of course, Caterpillar’s employees and those of associated companies also become customers of our retail sector, buyers of our houses, students in our schools and patients of our healthcare system.
After nearly a century, Caterpillar is still an enormous part of Greater Peoria. We should be proud to call them our hometown company and celebrate their impact on us and the world, not just on special occasions but everyday.
