CRADER DISTRIBUTOR LOOKING TO NEW MARBLE HILL FACILITY

MARBLE HILL -- Crader Distributing Co. of Marble Hill is getting a special 50th anniversary memento.

Early next year, the nation's largest Stihl Inc. dealership will move into a new $1.7 million structure in Marble Hill Industrial Park.

"We were running out of room here," said Becky Hurst, a company spokesperson. The company's current facility on Highway 34 encompasses 17,000 square feet. At 47,000 square feet, the new building almost triples Crader's size.

The family owned business, founded in 1943 by Buford Crader as an International Harvester farm equipment dealership, now serves a four-state area as a Stihl distributor.

The building is being constructed by Moneta Inc. of Sikeston, and will be purchased by Crader Distributing. The building is scheduled for completion in early February 1995. Crader has sold its current building to the Bollinger County Co-op.

The business is still very much a part of the Crader family.

Don Crader is president of the company. Also involved in the business are his sons, Stan Crader, vice president and general manager; Val Crader, controller; and a daughter, Becky Hurst, bookkeeper.

Crader Distributing has been selected as the "Family Business of the Year" by Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. The Craders will be recognized during a special ceremony Tuesday in St. Louis.

A year earlier, the distributing company was selected as Stihl "Distributor of the Year."

Hans Peter Stihl, CEO of Stihl German, the world's largest manufacturer of chain saws, visited Crader Distributing to honor the company as Stihl's top distributor in the United States.

Stihl is the son of Andreas Stihl, whom record books credit with inventing the one-man portable chain saw in Germany in 1926. Stihl has factories throughout the world, including the U.S. Most Stihl saws sold in the United States are produced domestically.

Crader Distributing became the distributor for Stihl in October of 1961. The company handled Stihl products for three years before becoming a distributor.