Your Inside View of the Commercial Drywall Industry
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Top 15 Biggest Drywall Contractors
| Rank 2022 | Rank 2021 | Company | Revenue | Owners | Founder | Interesting Facts | Notable Completed Projects | Headquarters | Largest Projects in Pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Performance Contracting Group | $1.2 billion | Original owners from a 1987 buy-out with Owens Corning were Mick Matthews, Craig Fallon, Robert Kline, Ken Spraetz, Thomas Carlisle, and Robert Brand. Now, it's employee owned through an ESOP. | Owens Corning acquired a few small businesses in the 1950s, and eventually consolidated them into a specialty contracting division called FENCO. In 1984, National Construction Services, Inc. was spun off. A few years later in 1987, six employees arranged a buyout. | PCI was early in the cleanroom game. A joint venture with Ireland based Ardmac in 1992 laid the groundwork for one of their most successful divisions. | A better question would be - what hasn't PCI built? Their portfolio is packed with the biggest, baddest projects in the country over the last 30-plus years. Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, Resort World Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium-Vegas, and the Google Spruce Goose project in L.A., to name just a few. | Lenexa, Kansas | |
| 2 | 4 | Western Partitions | $346 million | The son and daughter of owners Mike and Pam Roach lead the senior management team. Victor Roach as President and Angela Roach as Executive V.P. | Founded in 1972 by Mike and Pam Roach from their home basement. | In 2017, the company moved it's headquarters from Tigard, Oregon, to a new building in Wilsonville, Oregon with a pre-fab plant. | Western Partitions worked on the original Nike Campus in 1988 near Beaverton, Oregon. WPI also lists the 1997 U.S. Federal Courthouse in Portland as a notable project. | Wilsonville, Oregon | |
| 3 | 2 | The Raymond Group | $268 million | Founder George Raymond, and later his son Carl Raymond were the first two generations of Raymond leadership. | At age 28, George M. Raymond started a lath and plaster company in Los Angeles in 1936. | Through the 40s and 50s suburban sprawl, Raymond grew as a residential subcontractor. It wasn't until 1952 that Raymond expanded into commercial construction, completing the Pioneer Savings and loan building in Los Angeles, it's first multi-million dollar project. | They played a part in the design and building of the LAX Theme Building in 1961. (the flying saucer) Two decades later, Raymond expanded their presence internationally in 1983 with the Shanghai Bank project in Hong Kong, its first project outside the U.S. | Orange, California | |
| 4 | 7 | Precision Walls | $262 million | A common theme you'll find among subcontractor companies 30 years and older - 100% employee owned. After 40 years of private ownership by the Allen family, the company transitioned to a 100% ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) in 2019. | Loy & Elizabeth Allen in 1977 | Precision Walls offers over a dozen scopes and services including not only framing and drywall, but also blinds and window shades, cleanroom systems, rainscreen, and demountable partitions, among others. | Working primarily in the Southeast U.S., Precision has worked on some of the regions largest projects. Bank of America Plaza, Boeing Assembly Building, and even the Nascar Hall of Fame. | Cary, North Carolina | |
| 5 | -- | Acousti Engineering | $236 million | In September of 2020, private investment company Ardian purchased Acousti from the Verner family and a few retiring members of the management team. A minority share of the company remains with existing company managers. | Founded by Don Quisenberry, Arden Henry, and Clark A. Loomis in 1946. | In the 1960s, Acousti installed, at the time, the biggest computer access floor in the world at the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral. | In the 1970s and 1980s, Acousti played a large role in the development of Disney World, and its success there helped fund the expansion into other markets around the southeast U.S. | Orlando, Florida | |
| 6 | 8 | KHS&S Contractors | $232 million | KHS&S West Coast transitioned to an ESOP in 2006, and now includes over 200 employee owners. | Founded in 1984 by Mark Keenan, Dan Hopkins, David Stowell, and Leon Schmidt (K.H.S.S.) KHS&S West was led by President & CEO Dave Suder until he passed away in 2019. | KHS&S has completed over 5 million square feet of thematic projects at casinos and theme parks around the country. | EPCOT Center and Disney World in Orlando fueled early growth in the company. Expanding to the west coast in 1996, KHS&S made theming and gaming projects their specialty with major projects in Vegas and Los Angeles. | Anaheim, California & Tampa, Florida | |
| 7 | 6 | National Construction Enterprises | $219 million | NCE, the parent company for multiple subcontracting companies around the U.S. In the drywall industry, this includes Wal-Mark Contracting Group in Florida, and Pontiac Ceiling & Partition in Michigan. | Founded in 1966, the company is led by CEO Pino Mancina. | 12 different companies make up NCE, including Wal-Mark in the drywall industry, a glazing company, a door company, and even two general contracting companies. | The company has completed work at the Orlando International Airport South Terminal, Orlando Regional Medical Center, Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital. | Tampa, Florida | |
| 8 | 9 | California Drywall | $214 million | In 1968, Roger Eckstrom and Cal Bowles took over the company. Almost thirty years later, Steve Eckstrom and Kent Bowles would take control in 1996. | Leonard Eckstrom founded Cal Drywall in 1946 out of his garage in San Jose, California. Over 75 years later, Cal Drywall has an impressive project list of the biggest high-profile projects in California. | The company began using the Ames Taping Bazooka in 1955, one of the first to adopt the latest productivity enhancing taping tools. | There was no bigger project to be a part of in 1996 than the Oracle Headquarters in Redwood City. Later, in 2006, Cal Drywall would complete their first project with Google, then Facebook the next year. A few years later, they would add SFO Airport Terminal 2, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, and the monsterous Apple Infinity Loop Headquarters building in Cupertino in 2018. | San Jose, California | |
| 9 | 5 | Nevell Group | $197 million | In April of 2021, Nevell Group transitioned to 100% Employee Owned (ESOP) | Michael Nevell and Bruce Pasqua founded Nevell Group in 2002. | Mike Nevell was president of Church & Larsen wall and ceiling contractor for 16 years before he founded Nevell Group. | Recently, Nevell Group completed the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, the SFO Control Tower & Terminal 1 in San Francisco, and the 400,000 square foot Delta Skyway project at LAX Airport. | Brea, California | |
| 10 | 12 | Daley's Drywall | $186 million | It's not clear if Daley's is a true ESOP, but leadership includes Brittni Daley-Grishaeva as President & CFO. Ron Hughes, VP of Opperations, and Jonathan Hughes as VP of Estimating & Sales. | Gary "Moe" Daley founded Daley's Drywall & Taping in 1963 after working his way up as a Journeyman Union Taper in Northern California. With his wife Sally running the books, Moe Daley steadily grew the company until his retirement in 1986. | Before founding Daley's Drywall & Taping, Moe Daley worked as a union taper, and before that, worked as a residential tile setter. Apparently, Moe didn't like working with tile grout and thin set, it dried out his skin, is what he said. And that's what got Moe Daley into the drywall taping business. | One Rincon Apartments near the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, Stanford Cancer Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, and the Gateway of the Pacific bio-med research facility. | Campbell, California | |
| 11 | 10 | Baker Triangle | $183 million | Steve Baker's son Bryan serves as CEO | Steve Baker began his career in 1975 estimating for Triangle Plastering. As the company grew, Steve bought out the owners and formed Baker Drywall and Triangle Plastering. | Baker Triangle has completed projects in over 20 states and now has seven offices and over 1,600 employees. | Baker completed the Perot Museum of Nature & Science, the Texas A&M Kyle Field Redevelopment, 700,000 square foot NorthPark Center mall expansion, and the 930,000 square foot JP Morgan Chase Regional Headquarters. | Mesquite, Texas | |
| 12 | 11 | Greater Metroplex Interiors | $147 million | Family owned and operated. | Founded in 1978 by Mikal Darden, who is now CEO. Son T. Mikal Darden is company President. | Based in Texas, GMI completed the American Airlines Headquarters, Mercedes Benz Corporate Training Facility, and the Hall Arts Residences and Hotel. | Southlake, Texas | ||
| 13 | 16 | F.L. Crane & Sons | $127 million | The company was operated by F.L.'s sons, Jimmie and Johnny Crane. Now Chip Crane is CEO, and Ty Crane is President. | F.L. Crane founded the company in 1947. | Oschner's Medical Center, The Golden Nugget, and the Refuge Hotel in Flowood, MS. | Fulton, Mississippi | ||
| 14 | 17 | New England Finish Systems | $115 million | Founder Jon Marquis still owns the company, along with five other related companies. | In 1985, Jon Marquis founded New England Drywall, and eventually rebranded the company into New England Finish Systems. | NEFS owns a paint company, demo company, door company, acoustical ceiling company, and a specialty window treatment company. Six companies working to get synergy from their efforts. | The Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground at Boston University is one of NEFS's highlighted projects recently. | Salem, New Hampshire | |
| 15 | 15 | Midwest Drywall | $113 million | Midwest became an ESOP in 2018. | Founded in 1972, Midwest Drywall | Midwest completed the Ritz-Carlton Club project with PCL Construction in Vail, Colorado. They also completed the Westin Hotel in Colorado with Hoffman Construction. | Wichita, Kansas |
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Top 15 Biggest General Contractors
| Rank 2022 | Rank 2021 | Company | Revenue | Owners | Founder | Interesting Facts | Notable Completed Projects | Largest Projects in Pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | The Turner Corp | $14.2 billion | Turner stock began trading publicly on the American Stock Exchange in 1972. In 1999, Turner was purchased by Hochtief, a German company. | Over 120 years ago, Henry Turner founded Turner Construction in 1902. | Henry Chandlee Turner's first project was to build a concrete vault for $690 in Brooklyn, New York, in 1902. | What began with a concrete vault and New York City Subway stairs in the early 1900s turned into the largest general contractor in the world. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Grand 50 Tower in Taiwan, and the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles are a few mega-projects by Turner. | |
| 2 | 2 | Bechtel | $12.9 billion | The Bechtel Family | Warren A. Bechtel moved to Oklahoma and began constructing railroads in 1898. By 1925, Warren had worked on several railroad projects, including the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. With his sons, Kenneth, Stephen, and Warren Jr. he founded W.A. Bechtel Company. | Betchtel was one of six contractors to bid on, and win the contract to construct the Hoover Dam in 1931. | World War II cargo ships, the Yukon pipeline in Alaska, the Experimental Breeder Nuclear Power Reactor in Idaho, and the Channel Tunnel "Chunnel" linking France and the U.K. What hasn't Bechtel built? | |
| 3 | 4 | Kiewit Corp. | $10.6 billion | Private, Employee Owned, | Andrew and Peter Kiewit, 1884 | Founded as a brickmaking company in 1884 in Omaha, NE. | T-Mobile Park, Seattle | Solar Farm, Las Vegas, NV |
| 4 | 6 | STO Building Group | $9.5 billion | STO Building Group ownership is spread between employees and "strategic outside advisors." The company cites it's unique ownership model as a resource to invest in people, processes, and technologies to serve customers. | Patrick J. Donaghy and Lewis R. Marino founded The Structure Tone organization in New York City in 1971. | The company expanded to Boston in 1985 and New Jersey in 1987. Then Dallas and London in 1988. Now, 'STO' is a family of more than a dozen companies under one umbrella, including Layton Construction. I did not know Layton was owned by STO until just now. | Structure Tone's first Fortune 500 client was IBM in 1971. 30 years later it was chosen by KPMG to manage the debris removal at the World Trade Center after 9-11. | |
| 5 | 3 | Fluor | $8.8 billion | With a market capitalization of more than $5 billion, Fluor Corp. trades shares publicly on the New York Stock Exchange. BlackRock, Fidelity, and Vanguard are listed as the biggest shareholders with each holding roughly 10% ownership. | John Simon Fluor founded Fluor Construction Company in 1912. Beginning in the California oil and gas industry building pipelines and refineries, the company quickly expanded to the Middle East and throughout the world. | Over 40,000 employees work around the word building Fluor projects. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Fluor has been constructing for over 110 years. | Massive worldwide mining and infrastructure projects proliferate the Fluor portfolio. A few other unique projects are the NuScale Modular Nuclear Reactor, and the Quellaveco Open Pit Copper Mine in Peru. | |
| 6 | 5 | The Whiting Turner Contracting Co. | $8.3 billion | The company is privately owned. | In 1909, G.W.C. Whiting and LeBaron Turner, two M.I.T. classmates, founded Whiting-Turner. | The company's very first project was road and utility work at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. | W.T. completed the NASA Langley Research Center in 2011, and has built mega-data center projects for Google and Amazon. | |
| 7 | 10 | DPR Construction | $7.4 billion | DPR is privately owned by employee shareholders. | DPR was founded in 1990 by Doug Woods, Peter Nosler, and Ron Davidowski, in the San Francisco Bay area. George Pfeffer is now CEO and President after the passing of Doug Woods in 2021. | The three DPR founders, Doug, Peter, and Ron, decided to use the first letter in each of their names for the company, D (Doug) P (Peter) R (Ron) | DPR has a huge portfolio of completed data center projects, including the Digital Realty Data Center in Frankfurt, Germany, the Facebook Data Center in Prineville, Oregon, and the eBay Data Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. | |
| 8 | 9 | Skanska USA | $6.3 billion | Skanska shares are publicly traded, listed on the Stockholm exchange. | Skanska was founded in a fishing village in Sweden in 1887 by Rudolf Fredrik Berg. Initially, the company was named "Aktiebolaget Skanska Cementgjuteriet." | Skanska founder Rudolf Fredrik Berg was an ambitious man. He led several companies, and founded a lecture society and the Betel church. He died the same day as King Oscar II. His brother was the medical doctor for the King, and was at the King's deathbed unable to help his brother. | One of the most recognizable buildings in London's financial district, 30 St Mary Axe, was built by Skanska in 2004. In the U.S., MetLife Stadium in New York City, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, are a few mega-projects for Skanska. | |
| 9 | 13 | Clark Group | $6.2 billion | Executives purchased the company in 2016. One year after founder James Clark died. | George Hyman founded George Hyman Construction Company in 1906 as an excavating company in the Washington D.C. area. The company was later purchased by A. James Clark in 1969 and became Clark Construction. | Founder George Hyman operated the only steam shovel in Washington D.C. in 1909. | E'Enfant Plaza, National Air and Space Museum Revitalization, Capital One Arena, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial are a few high profile projects completed by Clark. | |
| 10 | 8 | AECOM | $6.2 billion | AECOM is publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ACM. Largest shareholders include PrimeCap Management (12%) Vanguard (9%) and BlackRock (8%) | J. Fred Miles founded Swiss Drilling Company in Oklahoma in 1910, which later grew into what is today AECOM. | In 2021, AECOM relocated it's global headquarters from Los Angeles, to Dallas, TX. The name "AECOM" stands for Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Management. | Citi Field, Ferrari World, and the Portuguese High-Speed Rail, this company has an amazing and diverse portfolio. | |
| 11 | 11 | Gilbane Building Co. | $6 billion | Gilbane Building Company is a sixth-generation, family-owned company, currently run by the chairman and CEO, Thomas F. Gilbane Jr. | Founded in Leitrim, Ireland in 1942 by William Gilbane, the family moved to the United States just 3 years later to escape the "Great Hunger." The Gilbane family landed in Rhode Island, where William Gilbane founded a carpentry business in 1870. | A kerosene fire from a lamp in the Gilbane Brothers shop nearly wiped the company out. Luckily, the books were stored in a fireproof safe, and the brothers began rebuilding the shop and continued to serve their customers. | Baltimore Convention Center, the National Air and Space Museum, and the National World War II Memorial are a few of Gilbane's high profile completed projects. | |
| 12 | 14 | PCL Construction | $6 billion | PCL is 100% ESOP, or employee-owned. | James Martin and Edward Poole founded "Martin and Poole Construction Company" in 1906, the company that eventually became PCL in 1913. "Poole Construction Company Limited." | All the way back in 1977, employees purchased the company from the Poole Family, and shortened the company name to "PCL Construction Limited." | The San Diego Airport Terminal 2, the Wacker Polysilicon Plant in Tennessee, and the LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse are just a few of PCL's amazing projects. | |
| 13 | 7 | Tutor Perini | $5.9 billion | Ronald N. Tutor is the owner of Tutor Perini, and leads the company as chairman and CEO. As of 2017, Ronald had a net worth of $4.2 billion. | Albert G. Tutor began the family construction business in 1949 when he founded A.G. Tutor Company, Inc. | The A.G. Tutor Company grew quickly through the seventies and eighties with partnerships and mergers. In 1997, Ron Tutor led the recapitalization of Perini Corporation, and officially merged shortly after. | Perini has an impressive project portfolio including the CityCenter in Los Vegas, The Cosmopolitan of Los Vegas, and the $2 billion California High-Speed Rail from Madera, CA to Fresno, CA. | |
| 14 | 12 | Hensel Phelps | $5.5 billion | Hensel Phelps is a privately owned and employee owned business. | Founded by Abel Hensel Phelps in 1937 in Greeley, Colorado. | In 2021, Hensel Phelps acquired the water and wastewater treatment company, Hydro Construction. | Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington D.C., the California Air Resources Board Headquarters, and the Social Security Administration Modernization. | |
| 15 | 15 | The Walsh Group | $5.2 billion | Matthew Walsh is Co-Chairman of th Walsh Group. | Matthew Myles Walsh started a small carpentry company in 1898, and after 4 generations, the Walsh Group now has over 8,000 employees. | The company continues a tradition started by Matthew Myles Walsh II and his sons Matt and Dan. At the beginning of each project, a Miraculous Medal is placed in the wet concrete. | The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the SOF Joint Intelligence Brigade Building, and the NASA Research Support Building are just a few Walsh Group projects. |
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