One Year in Highland: Calumet Chicago Company Looks Ahead
October 2026 marks one year since Calumet Chicago Company moved to our new home at 9900 Express Drive in Highland, Indiana.
For us, the move represented much more than a change of address.
Calumet Chicago Company had operated from 2911 Bernice Road in Lansing, Illinois, for more than 50 years. That location was home to decades of equipment repair, industrial service, customer relationships and a lot of company history.
In October 2025, we packed up that history and moved a few miles southeast to Highland.
One year later, we’re happy we made the move.
More Room for the Next Chapter
Our Highland facility gives Calumet Chicago Company additional space for the industrial service work that has become the heart of our business.
From our shop in Northwest Indiana, we continue to support customers throughout the Chicago area, Northwest Indiana and across the country with services that include:
- CUDA aqueous parts washer sales, leasing, service and repair
- Industrial parts cleaning and washer maintenance
- CUDA detergent and parts
- Preventive maintenance and reclaim services
- Railroad jack inspection, repair and certification
- Pneumatic and hydraulic tool repair
- Industrial equipment and tool sales
The new facility gives us room to organize those operations more efficiently and, just as importantly, room to think about where we want to take the company next.
That is something we didn’t want to lose sight of after the move.
Building on Our CUDA Cleaning Business
One area where we see continued opportunity is industrial parts cleaning.
Calumet Chicago Company has worked with CUDA aqueous parts washers for many years, servicing equipment in steel mills, railroad facilities, manufacturing plants, municipal operations and other demanding industrial environments.
Our work goes well beyond simply selling a washer.
We help customers maintain the equipment they already have, repair machines when problems develop, provide scheduled preventive maintenance, reclaim dirty wash solution, supply CUDA detergent and help determine what size cleaning system makes sense for a particular application.
As our CUDA business continues to grow, we’re also looking at ways to make better use of the additional space available at our Highland property.
The CUDA-branded containers pictured with this article are one example of what we have in mind.
The painted containers and CUDA graphics are conceptual at this point, but the idea behind them is real: continue improving the property while creating additional space that can support our cleaning-system operations, equipment, parts and future growth.
Sometimes a new building gives you more than additional square footage. It gives you the opportunity to look at the business with fresh eyes.
Putting Our Own Stamp on the Building
During our first year in Highland, we’ve also started making the building look and feel more like Calumet Chicago Company’s home.
The newly painted front of the facility is part of that process.
After spending more than half a century at the same Lansing address, it takes a little time to put your own identity on a new property. We expect that process to continue.
Some improvements will be practical. Others will simply make the property look better.
And a few ideas may be a little ambitious.
That’s okay.
After 50-plus years at one location, we aren’t afraid to think about what the next 10, 20 or 50 years might look like.
A Special Year to Celebrate America’s 250th
Our first anniversary in Highland also happens to fall during a historic year for the country.
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States — 1776 to 2026.
For a small American industrial company, that milestone feels worth recognizing.
Calumet Chicago Company’s history obviously doesn’t go back 250 years, but our business has been built around an important part of the American economy: people who make things, fix things and keep industrial equipment running.
Steel mills. Railroads. Manufacturing plants. Municipal shops. Contractors. Maintenance departments.
Those are the kinds of customers we’ve served for decades.
Our USA 250th anniversary graphic is simply our way of joining in the celebration and recognizing a milestone that belongs to all of us.
There is something fitting about celebrating America’s 250th birthday during the same year that we’re celebrating the first anniversary of a new chapter for Calumet Chicago Company.
More Than 50 Years in Lansing. One Year in Highland. And We’re Just Getting Started.
Leaving a building after more than five decades was a significant change.
But Calumet Chicago Company itself didn’t change.
We are still focused on the same things that built the business in the first place: solving equipment problems, taking care of customers, providing dependable service and doing the job correctly.
Highland simply gives us a better place to continue doing it.
We appreciate the customers, suppliers and employees who made the move possible — and especially the customers who followed us from Lansing to Highland without missing a beat.
One year in, we’re settled.
Now we’re looking forward.
If the first year was about getting established in Highland, the next few years will be about taking advantage of what the new location makes possible.
Big plans?
We have a few.
Stay tuned.
