Coolest Things Made in Missouri 2026: AP-DATA data center enclosure

Matt Calton

Owner: Koch Enterprises Inc. (Evansville, Indiana)
Employees: 208
Founded: 2002
Web: AmProd.us
Social: Facebook.com/AmericanProductsLLC
2025 Revenue: Undisclosed
Product Pricing: $10,000-$20,000
Why is this the coolest product made in Missouri? Our skilled tradespeople, our engineers, our operators working together to turn raw steel into something that protects critical infrastructure across the country.

American Products in Strafford started out in 1989 as Champion Products before taking its current name in 2002. In 2016, American Products became part of Amprod LLC, which was acquired in 2022 by Evansville, Indiana-based Koch Enterprises Inc. American Products designs and builds enclosures and shelters that protect critical equipment from the elements. The AP-DATA houses fiber optics that move large amounts of data.

SBJ: What is the AP-DATA and how does it work?
Matt Calton, general manager: The AP-DATA is an outdoor enclosure that is used to house fiber optics. Last year and the year before, the data center industry just went gangbuster for (artificial intelligence) infrastructure and hyperscale data routing all across the U.S., so this cabinet is an outdoor enclosure that houses and manages the fiber optic network that is used to move massive amounts of data from one data center to another data center.

SBJ: What makes it unique?
Calton: One of the reasons it’s unique is our collaboration, the way we were able to collaborate with a Magnificent Seven company. I can’t say the company’s name, (but it’s) one of the massive companies out there that is enhancing data center activity across the nation. We were able to collaborate with them to design this cabinet to help protect their networks. We started working on this project in early 2025, and we designed this product for them. They don’t own the design. We collaborated with them on the design, but we own the design and then we were able to market this product, get it on our website and start selling it to other customers around mid-year 2025.

SBJ: So you created AP-DATA in response to a specific need?
Calton: That’s exactly right. We’re really good at this. We do outdoor cabinets and walk-in shelters for the telecommunications industry, so we’re familiar with how to protect people’s equipment. So we were able to take a modified cabinet we’d already done in the past and enhance it or make it different to fit the need of this hyperscale company.

SBJ: Your products are designed to last more than 20 years. What’s the role of sustainability?
Calton: We don’t make the cheapest product. We really rely on our quality and our knowledge and our expertise to win our customers, but we have to make sure we explain that value, and we’ve got to sell that value to our customers, and how we do that is we build a product that is very robust and durable. And that’s why we claim that this product will be able to live in the field for 20-plus years without any rust or degradation of the product.

SBJ: Do you have plans to expand?
Calton: Yes, but they’re intentional, disciplined, customer-driven plans, so we want to do it the right way. We don’t want to grow just to grow. We want it to be a meaningful growth, meaning we want to expand capacity and our capabilities to meet increasing customer demand on more complex projects. And we want to develop our team through training, cross-skilled development and leadership growth to support long-term scalability.
SBJ: How does American Products seek to help workforce development?
Calton: We try to partner with local schools and technical programs to create pathways for students to stay and learn a trade and build a future locally instead of leaving the area.

SBJ: Your growth potential in AI infrastructure could be significant.
Calton: Yes. It’s a massive industry right now. There’s a lot of spending in that industry, which is good. We’re set up nicely to help support that, whether it’s to an end customer like with the AP-DATA or whether it’s through a partner … building product for someone else.