Graybar is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
employee-owned corporation
Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, E ...
, based in
Clayton,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
. It conducts a
wholesale
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
distribution business for electrical, communications and
data networking
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ma ...
products, and is a provider of related
supply-chain management
In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and stor ...
and
logistics
Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
services. It is included on the
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
list of the largest
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
corporations
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
.
The Graybar Electric Company was incorporated on December 11, 1925, as the successor company of the general electric supply business of the
Western Electric Company
The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...
, which was founded in 1869 in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, by
Elisha Gray
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. ...
and
Enos M. Barton
Enos Melancthon Barton (December 2, 1842 – May 3, 1916) was an American electrical engineer who, with Elisha Gray, co-founded Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
Biography
Born in Lorraine, New York in 1842, Enos M. Barton attended the Un ...
. The separation of product lines was intended to provide a separate identity from the telephone supply function of Western Electric to the
Bell System
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...
, given its importance as the largest merchandiser of electrical apparatus and related equipment in the world in the 1920s.
[''Telephony'', Volume 90 (1), January 2, 1926, p.38]
History
Early history
During the post-
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
, an
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
named
Enos M. Barton
Enos Melancthon Barton (December 2, 1842 – May 3, 1916) was an American electrical engineer who, with Elisha Gray, co-founded Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
Biography
Born in Lorraine, New York in 1842, Enos M. Barton attended the Un ...
(who had served as a
telegrapher
A telegraphist (British English), telegrapher (American English), or telegraph operator is an operator who uses a telegraph key to send and receive the Morse code in order to communicate by land lines or radio.
During the Great War the Roya ...
during the war) worked for
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
in
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. During this period, Barton met George Shawk, the foreman of the company's Cleveland, Ohio shop. When that shop was closed down, Shawk bought some of the equipment and went into business for himself, making various kinds of electrical and other apparatus, including inventor's models. While on a trip to Rochester, he and Barton, who was then 26, agreed to go into
partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...
.
To raise the $400 her son needed for his share of the business venture, Barton's widowed mother mortgaged her home.
The new firm, located at 93 St. Clair Street in Cleveland, grew. In May 1869,
Elisha Gray
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. ...
, an
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
professor and inventor of
telegraphic equipment, bought out Shawk's interest.
Up until then, Gray had been one of the firm's top customers. He had invented a needle
annunciator
An annunciator panel, also known in some aircraft as the Centralized Warning Panel (CWP) or Caution Advisory Panel (CAP), is a group of lights used as a central indicator of status of equipment or systems in an aircraft, industrial process, buildin ...
for hotels and elevators, a
telautograph
The telautograph is an analog precursor to the modern fax machine. It transmits electrical impulses recorded by potentiometers at the sending station to servomechanisms attached to a pen at the receiving station, thus reproducing at the receivin ...
(a machine for the electrical transmission of writing), and the
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
answer-back call box. Gray and Barton joined forces with an investment of $2,500 each, with Gray as the senior partner. The success of the new company attracted the attention of
General Anson Stager, general superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He offered to enter the business as an equal partner with Gray and Barton, providing the company's headquarters was moved from Cleveland to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. In December 1869, the company moved to 162 S. Water Street,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. The great
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
in 1871 came within two blocks of its small plant.
The destruction caused by the fire resulted in greater growth for Gray & Barton, as the company sold
fire alarm
A fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related or general notification emergency, emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors and heat detectors or may also ...
s and helped rebuild the Western Union infrastructure in the city.
Incorporation as Western Electric
![Graybar Electric internal call system](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Graybar_Electric_internal_call_system.png)
After several relocations, all in Chicago, the business was incorporated as the
Western Electric Manufacturing Company
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
in 1872 to meet the capital requirements of the telegraph supply business. The new company so closely allied with the elder Western that three of its five directors were Western Union executives. Moreover, Stager was named president, although it was Barton as secretary/treasurer who actually handled day-to-day affairs.
Although the young firm thrived in the telegraph industry, it was not until the invention of the
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
by
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
in 1876, and the
incandescent lamp
An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxid ...
by
Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
in 1879, that Western Electric began to gain stature as a large company.
Part-owner Gray held the title of company electrician and spent his days working on his inventions, becoming increasingly less involved in the operations of the shop, and eventually he sold his interest in Western Electric in 1875 and retired to pursue independent research and to teach at
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
. In 1876, he filed a caveat with the
U.S. Patent Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
, announcing his intention to soon patent an invention that would transmit vocal sounds telegraphically. Gray dubbed his telephone "the harmonic telegraph". Only hours earlier, however,
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
applied for a patent for the same idea, which became known as the telephone. As it turned out, what Bell actually patented would have never worked, while Gray's idea would have. Western Union acquired both Gray's and Edison's telephone patents to challenge the American Bell Telephony Company (renamed AT&T in 1899), which led to a
patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
suit and Bell ultimately being named the inventor of the telephone. Therefore it was Bell's patent and not Gray’s that launched the telecommunications industry.
As applications of
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
broadened, Western Electric not only sold the
electric bell
An electric bell is a mechanical or electronic bell that functions by means of an electromagnet. When an electric current is applied, it produces a repetitive buzzing, clanging or ringing sound. Electromechanical bells have been widely used at r ...
s and
batteries,
telegraph key
A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to transmit text messages in Morse code in a telegraphy system. Keys are used in all forms of electrical telegraph systems, including landline (also called wire) t ...
s,
fire alarm box
A fire alarm box, fire alarm call box, or fire alarm pull box is a device used for notifying a fire department of a fire. Typically installed on street corners, they were the main means of summoning firefighters before the general availability ...
es and hotel annunciators it originally manufactured, but also many items it purchased from other manufacturers.
Stager served as president of Western Electric until shortly before his death in 1885, and Barton then served as president from 1886 to 1908.
Western Electric Company was the first company to join in a
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese joint venture with foreign capital. It invested in
Nippon Electric Company
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
in 1899. Western Electric held 54% of NEC at the time. Their representative in Japan was
Walter Tenney Carleton
Walter Tenney Carleton (24 December 1867 – 6 July 1900) was an early international businessman. He was one of the three founding directors of NEC Corporation, the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
Youth and education
He w ...
.
By the turn of the century, Western Electric had become the main producer of telephone equipment in the United States. It also manufactured
arc lamp
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc).
The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, ...
s,
lighting equipment
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
and power apparatus, ranging from small fans to huge motors and generators. Alongside manufacturing, the distribution business continued to grow, handling an extensive line of electrical supplies such as
wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is c ...
,
conduit
Conduit may refer to:
Engineering systems
* Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids
* Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables
* Conduit curre ...
,
wiring devices and
pole line material.
By the 1910s, the company became the world’s largest distributor and the United States’ leading wholesaler of electrical supplies. These facts attracted investment by the
American Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Englan ...
, which also discovered that Gray and Barton could purchase supplies and sell them to the telephone companies more efficiently than the companies could acquire the supplies themselves.
A chain of warehouses was established across the nation, and the growth of the distributing business continued to increase through
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and into the post-war period.
Formation of Graybar
On December 31, 1920, the supply department of Western Electric was divided by forming operating divisions for general electrical supplies and telephone equipment. In 1923, the general supply business opened separate general offices in the newly constructed
Pershing Square Building
The Pershing Square Building, also known as 125 Park Avenue or 100 East 42nd Street, is a 25-story office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the eastern side of Park Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, across fro ...
in New York City.
Scores of electrical supply manufacturers were using the company's distribution network, and business relationships were formed. Some of these relationships, such as with
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
and the
Square D Company, are more than a century old and still exist today. Having become the largest merchandizer of electrical supplies in the world and close to fifty distributing houses in the United States,
the division was incorporated as a separate entity on December 11, 1925 with the name ''Graybar Electric Company'', in honor of Western's original founders,
Elisha Gray
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. ...
and
Enos Barton
Enos Melancthon Barton (December 2, 1842 – May 3, 1916) was an American electrical engineer who, with Elisha Gray, co-founded Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
Biography
Born in Lorraine, New York in 1842, Enos M. Barton attended the U ...
.
On January 1, 1927, Western Electric's holdings in Graybar were transferred to Electric Research Holdings, a Western Electric company. Graybar was sold to the Graybar Management Corporation on December 31, 1928, a company held by the employees of Graybar, who purchased their shares for its capitalized value of $9 million, which consisted of $3 million in cash and $6 million in cumulative
preferred stock
Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt ins ...
.
![Graybar building nyc 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Graybar_building_nyc_1.jpg)
During the 1930s, the company explored many avenues of income, including a line of appliances and sewing machines under the Graybar brand. By 1941 the company's sales volume was more than $100 million, the number of distribution houses had jumped to 86, and there was a corresponding increase in personnel. Also that year, the remaining outstanding shares of stock were purchased from Western Electric with a $1 million check signed by Graybar President Frank A. Ketcham.
When the country entered
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Graybar's ingenuity and knowledge of logistics proved to be of immeasurable value in providing war-needed goods. Graybar became a vital link between America's manufacturers and America's defense needs. Defense-related business continued in the postwar era, with Graybar again aiding the military during the subsequent
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
and
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Overall the company enjoyed strong growth in the years following World War II, its momentum not checked until the
recession of the mid-1970s, which led to Graybar slashing its workforce by 20%. As a result, when economic conditions improved in the 1980s Graybar was unable to gear up quickly enough to meet the rising demand for electrical products.
The corporate headquarters moved from the
Graybar Building
Graybar is an United States of America, American employee-owned corporation, based in Clayton, Missouri, Clayton, Missouri. It conducts a wholesale distribution business for electrical, communications and data networking products, and is a provi ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to
Clayton, Missouri
Clayton is a city in and the seat of St. Louis County, Missouri. It borders the independent city of St. Louis. The population was 17,355 at the 2020 census. Organized in 1877, the city was named after Ralph Clayton, who donated the land for the ...
in 1982.
Recent years
Graybar modernized its infrastructure, implementing one of the first computer-to-computer ordering systems, but a weak real estate market and slowdown in construction began to take its toll on the bottom line. Revenues, which had approached $1.5 billion in 1980, improved to just $1.89 billion in 1990, then fell to $1.74 billion in 1991, prompting the closure of some regional offices and another reduction in the workforce. Aside from a weak economy, it was also becoming clear to management that Graybar suffered from internal problems; the company was losing market share on its traditional electrical business while unable to make desired progress on the newer communications/data products.
Business improved as the economy recovered in the early 1990s. Despite sales growing to $2.3 billion in 1994, management decided to realign the business starting in January 1995, forming two business groups, one for electrical supplies and another devoted to the increasingly important comm/data business. That same year, Graybar formed the Solutions Providers Alliance, teaming up with wholesale distributors Kaman Industrial Technologies, WWR Scientific Products, and Vallen Corporation. To accommodate an aggressive new growth strategy, Graybar added 45 locations, 2,400 employees, and 350 salespeople from 1994 to 1999. It also improved its network of warehouses, spending $144 million to construct 16 major new facilities that dramatically cut down on delivery time. As a result of these investments, the company was well positioned to take advantage of a strong economy in the final years of the 1990s. In 1999 annual revenues topped $4.2 billion, while profits almost doubled during this period, improving from $36 million in 1995 to $64 million in 1999. The improvement in the comm/data sector was of particular importance. In 1991 it accounted for just 17 percent of Graybar sales, but by 1999 totaled 38 percent.
[
]
Graybar engaged in some external growth, making several acquisitions in 1999 and 2000, the largest being Splane Electric Supply Co., a Detroit, Michigan, company with $30 million in annual sales, 70 employees, and six locations. In 2000 Graybar revenues improved to $5.2 billion, while net income topped $66.2 million. To support further expansion of its nationwide distribution centers, instrumental to the company's growth, Graybar placed a $100 million bond offering in the summer of 2001, the largest financing effort in its history. By this time nine of the 16 distribution centers started in 1997 were operational and the remaining seven were only months away from opening. Once the system was in place, Graybar was able to achieve its long-term aim of being able to ship to customers within 24 hours throughout the United States.
A downturn in the economy, however, soon hurt business and forced management to fine-tune the company's strategy. In 2001 revenues fell to $4.8 billion and business continued to drop off in 2002 and 2003 to $3.99 billion and $3.78 billion, respectively. As it had done in the early 1990s, Graybar opted to invest in its infrastructure in order to be ready to take advantage of the economy when it ultimately rebounded. The company invested $90 million on new technology to provide customers with more detailed information on orders, deliveries, and payments.
[
] At the same time, it encouraged its 4,100 suppliers to implement a standardized bar code system to create an open, central database similar to that found in the retail industry. In this way, Graybar would distinguish itself from its rivals, graduating from the role of middleman to a supply chain expert capable of adding value to the process. Once the new system was functional, Graybar hoped to be able to sell detailed reports to both suppliers and customers in the then $73 billion
electrical supply industry.
Graybar's revenues had increased to $4.1 billion
in 2004, $4.3 billion in 2005, and $5 billion in 2006.
Today, Graybar operates a network of more than 260 locations throughout the United States,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
as well as authorized agents around the world. Graybar Electric Company, Inc. is engaged in the distribution of electrical, communications and data networking products and the provision of related supply services primarily to electrical and comm/data contractors, industrial plants, federal, state and local governments, commercial users, telephone companies and power utilities in North America. All the products Graybar sells are purchased from others. The products distributed by the company consist primarily of wire and cable, lighting fixtures, power distribution equipment, comm/data products for
wide
WIDE or Wide may refer to:
*Wide (cricket)
*Wide and narrow data, terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data
*WIDE Project, Widely Integrated Distributed Environment
*Wide-angle Infinity Display Equipment
*WIDE-LP, a radio ...
and
local area network
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...
s, conduit, boxes and fittings, wiring devices, motor controls,
industrial automation
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
, lamps, industrial enclosures, tools and test equipment, station apparatus, fuses and
transformer
A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...
s.
Sales for 2007 were more than $5.25 billion, positioning Graybar at #455 on the
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
listing and #55 for
privately held companies
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
. From January 1 to June 30, 2008, Graybar posted profit of $47.4 million on revenue of $2.7 billion for the six-month period, up from a profit of $39.7 million, on revenue of $2.6 billion for the same period in 2007. In 2008 Graybar was named the ”most admired” Fortune 500 company in the "
diversified wholesalers" category. In 2008, Graybar rose to the #439 spot on the Fortune 500 listing. Sales for 2009 were $4.4 billion, positioning Graybar at #439 on the Fortune 500 listing and #64 on ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' List of America’s Largest Private Companies.
In 2010, Graybar had a healthy revenue growth and sales rose to $4.6 billion, a 5.4% increase from 2009. Net income of $42.3 million meant a 12.9% increase from the previous year.
Graybar finished 2011 with net sales of $5.37 billion, a 16.4% increase compared to 2010. The company also reported net income of $81.4 million, up 93.9% from the previous year. Graybar was listed as #451 on the 2012 Fortune 500 listing and was ranked #69 on the ''Forbes'' America's Largest Private Companies list in 2011.
Graybar finished 2012 with net sales of $5.4 billion and reported net income of $86.6 million. Graybar ranked No. 465 on the 2013 ''Fortune'' 500 ranking of America's largest companies and was ranked No.1 in the "diversified wholesalers" industry category on the 2013 ''Fortune'' World's Most Admired Companies list.
In 2013, Graybar finished the year with net sales of $5.7 billion and net income of $81.1 million. Sales for 2014 were $6 billion, with net income of $87.4 million. Sales in 2015 hit a record $6.1 billion, with record net income of $91.1 million. In 2015, Graybar also acquired Advantage Industrial Automation in Duluth, Georgia.
Graybar is an independent distributor and is still one of the largest employee-owned companies in the United States.
In 2017, Graybar started an innovation lab in Champaign - Illinois. Graybar’s Innovation Lab (iLab) sits at the intersection of industry and academia. The iLab is located in Research Park—a diverse ecosystem of other Fortune 500 companies, small to medium size firms, and a vibrant start-up community—on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
[
]
See also
*
Graybar Electric Company Building
The Graybar Electric Company Building is located at 55 West Canfield Street in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. This warehouse building was rented to the Graybar Electric Company from 1926 into the 1940s. (Detroit, Michigan)
Notes
References
* ''The Graybar Story'', by Graybar Electric Company, Inc., March 2005
External links
GraybarHome Page
{{Telecommunications
Companies based in St. Louis County, Missouri
Companies established in 1869
Employee-owned companies of the United States
Privately held companies based in Missouri
Industrial supply companies
1869 establishments in Ohio