Ride in Style Podcast: Anna and Jamie Creech of Creech Ladder & Racks
How a family-owned ladder business grew into a two-location commercial vehicle upfitting operation by adapting its products, people, and strategy to an unpredictable market.
Creech Ladder & Racks has spent decades helping contractors, dealerships, and fleet customers turn trucks and vans into practical tools for the job. In this episode of the Ride in Style Podcast, Anna and Jamie Creech join hosts Jesse Stoddard and Josh Poulson to explain how the company evolved from ladder sales and hand-built racks into a growing commercial vehicle upfitting business.
Their story is about more than products. It is about knowing when to protect a profitable legacy, when to separate business units, and how to make decisions when customer demand refuses to follow last year’s pattern.
Ride in Style Podcast Episode 49 with Jamie Creech of Creech Ladders & Racks
- 00:06:12 — The history of Creech Ladder & Racks
- 00:07:58 — Two locations and two customer segments
- 00:10:25 — How the General Motors bailment pool works
- 00:17:48 — Adapting to an unpredictable post-pandemic market
- 00:20:59 — Changing demand for vans, trucks, and service bodies
- 00:23:12 — The vision for a retail restyling center
- 00:26:13 — Team tenure, hiring, and sales expansion
- 00:28:08 — Ron Creech’s continuing role in the family business
- 00:29:48 — Preparing for the SEMA Show
- 00:33:06 — Where to find Creech Ladder & Racks
Anna and Jamie Creech
Creech Ladder & Racks, Nashville, Tennessee
- Leaders within a family-owned business serving Middle Tennessee and customers across the Southeast
- Experienced in commercial vehicle sales, fleet upfitting, truck and van equipment, and retail operations
- Helping guide the company’s expansion into a dedicated vehicle restyling center
- Focused on preserving a trusted local legacy while building new growth channels
What We Covered
- How Creech Ladder & Racks began as a ladder business in the 1980s
- Ron Creech’s expansion into fabricated racks and commercial upfitting
- Why the company divided retail and fleet work between two locations
- How its General Motors bailment pool supports dealers and fleet customers
- The difficulty of forecasting demand after the pandemic
- Changing demand for vans, work trucks, service bodies, and modular storage
- Plans for a dedicated retail restyling center
- The value of long-tenured employees and focused sales roles
- How the next generation is leading while drawing on Ron Creech’s experience
- Why relationships remain one of the automotive aftermarket’s greatest strengths
From Ladder Sales to Commercial Vehicle Upfitting
Creech Ladder & Racks began in 1987 as a family-owned ladder distributor. Ron Creech purchased the business from his brother in 2000 and expanded its capabilities beyond ladder sales.
Ron began fabricating ladder racks himself, welding and painting the racks for local customers. That hands-on work eventually opened the door to broader commercial vehicle upfitting. By the mid-2000s, the company was installing the equipment contractors and service businesses needed to make their trucks and vans more productive.
Today, Creech Ladder & Racks offers truck and van upfitting solutions that include ladder racks, shelving, partitions, toolboxes, service bodies, cargo solutions, lighting, and other work-ready equipment. The company still sells ladders, too.
That continuity matters. Some ladder customers have returned for decades, and the original product category continues to serve a real need. Instead of abandoning the company’s roots as new opportunities emerged, the team built around them.
Two Locations for Two Different Customer Experiences
For years, Creech handled nearly everything from one Nashville location. Local contractors could walk in for ladders or truck accessories while larger commercial and fleet projects moved through the same operation.
As the fleet side grew, the company outgrew that model.
Creech separated the business into two locations with distinct purposes. The original location continues to serve local businesses and walk-in customers, including HVAC companies, electrical contractors, and other small fleets that may need one or two vehicles equipped. It also remains the home of the company’s long-standing ladder business.
A second facility handles larger commercial and fleet upfitting work.
Separating the two operations gives each customer group a clearer experience. Local owners can receive personal support for individual vehicles and smaller fleets, while the commercial team can focus on vehicle volume, dealership relationships, fleet requirements, and production flow.
The structure also creates room for the original location’s next chapter: a dedicated vehicle restyling center.
How the General Motors Bailment Pool Works
One of Creech Ladder & Racks’ most distinctive capabilities is its General Motors bailment pool.
In the episode, Anna and Jamie explain that GM provides an annual allocation of commercial vans and heavy-duty trucks. Creech places those vehicle orders, receives the units, and carries them on its floor plan. The company then sells the vehicles to dealerships or fleet management companies with an appropriate upfit.
A commercial van might receive a partition and shelving package. A work truck could be equipped with a service body, ladder rack, toolbox, or other vocational equipment.
This model makes Creech responsible for more than installing accessories. The company must anticipate which vehicles and configurations the market will need, manage inventory, coordinate the upfit, and connect each completed vehicle with a dealership or fleet buyer.
That is a significant opportunity, but it also creates one of the business’s biggest challenges.
The Crystal Ball Has Been Broken Since 2020
Anna and Jamie joined the business in 2021, when commercial vehicles were in unusually high demand. If a vehicle was available, someone generally wanted it.
The market no longer works that way.
Demand can shift quickly between vans and trucks, and last year’s strongest configuration may become this year’s slowest. During the conversation, the team described a recent swing toward crew cab 2500-series trucks with service bodies. Vehicles that had taken longer to sell in the prior year were suddenly difficult to keep in stock.
Their shorthand captures the forecasting problem perfectly: everybody wants what you do not have.
For an upfitter managing vehicle inventory, installation capacity, and customer expectations, that uncertainty affects almost every decision. The team must watch dealership activity, listen to fleet customers, study product trends, and stay flexible enough to adjust before excess inventory or missed demand becomes expensive.
Customer Tools Are Changing the Upfit
Vehicle demand is only one part of the equation. The tools customers carry are changing, too.
Milwaukee PACKOUT is a strong example. Modular tool storage has developed an intensely loyal following, creating demand for shelving and mounting systems designed around specific boxes and configurations.
That means an upfitter cannot rely solely on the packages that worked a few years ago. Contractors expect their vehicles to support the systems they already use in the field. As those systems evolve, vehicle layouts must evolve with them.
The best upfit is not simply the one with the most equipment. It is the one that makes a technician’s work safer, faster, and more organized.
Building the Next Retail and Restyling Experience
Creech is remodeling its original location into a more dedicated restyling center. The exact product mix is still taking shape, and Anna and Jamie are intentionally leaving room to learn what the local market wants.
The vision combines the company’s established strengths with new opportunities. Ladders, toolboxes, truck and van accessories, and small commercial upfits will continue to have a place. Restyling products can expand what the location offers to individual vehicle owners and local businesses.
This is a measured approach to growth. Rather than forcing a finished concept before customers respond, the team is building the operation, testing demand, and refining the model as it develops.
A Long-Tenured Team Supporting Growth
At the time of the recording, Creech Ladder & Racks employed approximately 12 people. Several team members had been with the company for many years, including installers with more than a decade of experience.
That tenure provides valuable continuity. Experienced employees understand the products, installation standards, customers, and daily realities that cannot be captured fully in a process manual.
The company was also adding focused sales capacity. One new sales professional was concentrating on commercial growth across the Southeast, while another was preparing to support the restyling location.
Clearer roles can help the company grow without forcing the same person to manage every opportunity. The commercial operation, regional sales effort, and retail location each receive more focused attention while remaining connected to the same family business.
Leading the Next Chapter Without Losing the Past
Ron Creech remains an important source of knowledge and perspective. Although he is less involved in daily operations than he once was, Anna and Jamie continue to consult him on financial performance, major decisions, and lessons learned through earlier market cycles.
That balance is a strength. The next generation has room to lead, test new ideas, and take ownership, while decades of experience remain available when a difficult decision calls for historical context.
It is also a reminder that succession does not need to mean an abrupt handoff. It can be a gradual transfer of responsibility that protects institutional knowledge while creating space for new leadership.
Industry Relationships Make the Work Worthwhile
When asked what they enjoy most, Anna and Jamie did not reduce the answer to a particular shelving system, service body, or accessory.
They pointed to the industry and its people.
That theme runs throughout the Ride in Style Podcast. Products and vehicles bring the automotive aftermarket together, but relationships sustain it. Vendors, installers, dealers, fleet professionals, manufacturers, and fellow business owners become a network for solving problems and sharing ideas.
Anna and Jamie were also preparing for their first SEMA Show, adding a new experience to their regular involvement with the Work Truck Week community. Events like these create opportunities to see new products, meet partners face to face, and bring fresh ideas back to the business.
About the Ride in Style Podcast
Ride in Style is hosted by Jesse Stoddard and Josh Poulson and explores the business side of automotive restyling, manufacturing, marketing, dealership accessories, leadership, and aftermarket innovation.
Episodes feature manufacturers, entrepreneurs, distributors, marketers, shop owners, and industry leaders from across the automotive aftermarket.
Visit AutoStyleMarketing.com for more industry insights, episode recaps, and resources.