Graycor Construction Company Revenue and Competitors

Graycor was founded in 1921 as Chicago Concrete Breaking Company, a firm whose specialty was using explosives for controlled blasting. The company's founder, Edward Gray, moved his cleaning business, known as Gray Brothers, which specialized in building exteriors and windows, from St. Louis to Chicago. He steered the business in a new direction, renaming it Chicago Concrete Breaking Company. Soon, the new company won a contract to remove a railroad retaining wall in Grant Park without disrupting train traffic. The project's great success led the company to adopt the slogan, "Wanted -- a hard job." With business thriving, the firm entered the steel industry in the early 1930s, a move that eventually led to the construction and maintenance of steel-making facilities. Over the next two decades, the company developed new methods and technology for the steel industry. In 1954, the company formed a new division, Chicago Concrete Construction Company, the success of which further broadened the company's application of its construction skills. In 1957, The Edward Gray Corporation name was established, consolidating the two divisions. By the end of the 1970s, the company had evolved into a full-scale construction and industrial services organization, initiated state-of-the-art computerized cost control and planning systems and successfully completed construction projects across the nation.