New pallets and skids in Illinois
Illinois is third in food manufacturing with 98,300 jobs and fourth in chemicals with 48,745. Will County, southwest of Chicago, had 25,357 warehousing jobs, among the most of any county in the country, where rail and highway freight meet.
Cook County shows up in almost every industry list: it is second for grocery wholesale, second for paint and coatings, and among the leaders for meat processing and refrigerated warehousing. Lake County, to the north, has more pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs than any other county in the US, 16,883 of the state’s 24,257.
That mix asks for a range of pallets: 48 x 40s for grocery and distribution, drum squares for chemical and lubricant plants (Illinois leads in lubricating oil and grease jobs), and clean, dry builds for pharmaceutical warehouses.
Illustrative imageWhere the pallets go
| Industry | Jobs, 2025 | Common footprint |
|---|---|---|
| Food manufacturing | 98,300 | 48 x 40 |
| Warehousing and storage | 80,071 | 48 x 40 |
| Chemical manufacturing | 48,745 | 48 x 48 |
| Grocery wholesale | 48,629 | 48 x 40 |
| Pharmaceutical manufacturing | 24,257 | 48 x 40 |
Private-sector jobs, BLS QCEW 2025.
Buying in Illinois
Will County, south-west of Chicago, has more warehousing jobs than Cook: 25,357 against 16,057. Its distribution centers run on 48 x 40s in volume. Illinois also makes medicines at 1.8 times the national concentration, with 24,257 pharmaceutical jobs; those plants ask for dry, clean, documented pallets of consistent size. Auto parts add 21,206 jobs, with their own footprints. DuPage County adds another 8,368 warehousing jobs west of the city. Vehicle assembly plants employ 12,606 people, and 864 warehousing establishments hold 4.21% of the country’s warehousing jobs.
A Chicago-area buyer may well need all three kinds in one building: grocery 48 x 40s, drum squares and audited pharmaceutical pallets. Each gets its own written spec so they are never confused on the dock. Give us the loads one at a time, or together on a single request with a line for each.
Send the size, the load per pallet, the quantity and a Illinois delivery ZIP. We write the build down as a spec, quote new pallets against it with delivery priced in, and reorders follow the same sheet.
Quote new pallets for Illinois
Every pallet is quoted to a written spec, wherever the dock is. Give the delivery ZIP with the size, load and quantity.
- Delivery
- ZIP code in Illinois
- Pallet size
- Stringer length first
- Load weight
- Per pallet, in pounds
Not sure of a line? Leave it blank. Size, load weight and quantity are enough to start a quote.
The builds Illinois’s trades use
- Food and groceryThe 48 x 40 at its home: distribution centers, food plants and store docks, and why dry, clean lumber matters.
- Drums and chemicalsFour drums on a 48 x 48, boards under every chime, and racking full containers safely.
- PharmaceuticalClean, dry, documented pallets for audited warehouses.