Through the fog of the pandemic, Gray Construction found opportunities. When many of its manufacturing and industrial process customers were deemed essential in 2020, the Lexington, Ky.-based contractor was well positioned to pursue a surge of work, including megaprojects. In the Midwest region alone, the company saw annual revenue leap from $361.8 million in 2020 to an eye-popping $1 billion in 2021. That level of activity held firm in 2022 with revenue of $997 million, and Gray executives expect an even stronger financial year in 2023.

Beyond its business savvy, the family-owned company has held tight to its values—an attribute that has attracted both employees and customers. Given the company’s remarkable success, ENR Midwest named Gray Construction its 2023 Contractor of the Year.

Located on a 1,500-acre site, the BlueOval SK Battery Park project will create a total of 7 million sq ft of facilities.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

Positioned for Growth

As an integrated provider of engineering, design, construction, equipment manufacturing and real estate services, Gray is well established in such markets as food and beverage, manufacturing, automotive and distribution. In the years prior to the pandemic, the firm saw a path to growth primarily in the food and beverage market, says Brian Jones, president and chief executive officer at Gray. Meanwhile, big opportunities arose in emerging areas such as solar, batteries and chip plants.

“It really started to pay off in 2020,” Jones recalls. “We saw every one of our markets start to accelerate in terms of growth. At the same time there’s a convergence with our capabilities and résumé, where a number of companies were planning $500-million projects—new megaprojects. So we had really good sales [in 2020] that surpassed all expectations. In 2022, we saw the results of all that hard work, as the work was being put in place.”

Gray’s scope for BlueOval includes all mechanical and electrical work, roofing, siding and clean and dry room systems.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

Head of the Table

The strategy paid off in the food and beverage market, where Gray is currently ranked No. 1 nationally among ENR’s Top 400 Contractors. Still, Jones sees even bigger growth opportunities in other manufacturing markets.

“There are so many projects out there related to chips, batteries and solar that we’re growing there even faster than we were growing food and beverage,” he says. “So it’s all coming together in terms of our skill sets, service offerings, the people we’ve hired and the customers that want to work with us. You’re really just seeing that happen now.”

In the Midwest, Gray was selected as part of the construction team with Barton Malow on the new $5.8-billion BlueOval SK Battery Park project in Glendale, Ky. Announced in 2021, SK On—a South Korean battery manufacturer—partnered with Ford Motor Co. to build two battery manufacturing plants that will support Ford’s newest generation of electric vehicles. Battery production is slated to begin in 2025.

Located on a 1,500-acre site, the project will create a total of 7 million sq ft of facilities, requiring the erection of 80,000 tons of steel, the pouring of 400,000 cu yd of concrete and the movement of more than 5,200,000 cu yd of earth.

Gray’s scope includes all mechanical and electrical work, roofing, siding and complete ISO 7 clean and dry room systems. To accommodate BlueOval SK’s aggressive move-in and process line startup schedules, the Gray team is also designing and installing temporary walls as well as HVAC and dehumidifying systems.

“We’re excited to partner with a local company in Kentucky with long-standing ties to the community,” said Ursula Madden, BlueOval SK’s external affairs director, in a statement.

Instinct Pet Food selected Gray to design and build a 235,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility for freeze-dried raw pet food in Lincoln, Neb.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

Partnering Up

Gray’s jump into billion-dollar projects wasn’t made alone. As it did on the BlueOval project, the company is looking to partner with other large contractors on megaprojects. “We weren’t the first to bat on battery projects in the U.S.,” says Drew Romans, vice president of the manufacturing market at Gray. “We decided our best approach to get in that market was to partner with some contractors that we share similar values with, which is what we’ve done on the [BlueOval] project in Kentucky. So that allowed us to leverage maybe some of their experiences and some of our similarities to help us gain experience that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

In recent years, the company identified a handful of companies that it either has partnered with already or could partner with in the future. The firm is currently working on three projects nationwide in excess of $1 billion each, and the company could see that level of activity in battery, solar and chip plants continue in the coming years. “I don’t think it’s going away in the next couple of years,” he says. “I think this stays pretty strong for the foreseeable future. I think we’re talking five to 10 years.”

A critical component to Gray’s growth strategy is also strong partnerships with key subcontractors. Jacob Mullins, president and founder of Mullins Mechanical, says that during his firm’s first seven years in business, it focused on direct-to-owner projects. After working on a job in 2014 that Gray was also contracted on, Mullins forged a relationship with Gray and pursued a future project with Gray—it’s first work under a general contractor. “They do the kinds of complex projects we want to do, and I saw that they had a great culture all around,” he says. “Our morals align as companies, from how we treat others to how much we care about keeping everyone safe.”

After 15 years in business, Mullins credits Gray with being a key component in his company’s growth and success. Mullins Mechanical currently has multiple projects with Gray, including one valued at over $40 million. “That relationship made us grow a lot as a company, but it also made me grow a lot personally,” he says. “I get to see firsthand how they interact with their people and their culture. It’s helped me take some of the things that I see them do and apply them within my own company.”

Gray’s design for the Instinct project includes tempering, freeze drying, high-pressure processing, research and development, warehouse storage and a new production area.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

Value Proposition

Gray’s commitment to its values and its culture resonates with many of its clients and prospective employees as well. The firm states that its purpose is to “make a positive difference in people’s lives and build a better future.” That mission is built on three core values: putting safety and quality of life first; being customer and relationship driven; and treating others the way one would want to be treated, where everyone is welcome and respected.

Jones says those core values stem from the earliest days of the company, established in 1960 around the Gray family’s kitchen table. “Those [values] are things that were in conversations as the company started to grow and mature—and they still live with us today,” he says. “We’ve been pretty focused on making sure every new team member hears it, sees it or experiences it every day.”

Eric Patton, senior vice president of growth and development at Clemens Food Group, says Gray’s values are part of why Clemens first selected them for a pork production facility project in Michigan in 2016. “We wanted a general contractor that would be a cultural fit with our company,” he recalls. “We are a family-owned company. Gray is a family-owned company. This was a first major new project, and we needed to have somebody we really trusted and that we felt would give us the right guidance.”

Following the success of that project, Gray has gone on to complete other work for the Hatfield, Pa.-based company.

Gray’s scope of work for the Instinct facility’s production, cold storage and office areas includes design-build, process engineering and equipment services.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

“With all of their capabilities, we see Gray as a great partner for complex manufacturing or processing projects,” he adds.

Wes Oertli, director of capital project management at Instinct Pet Food, says he also sees Gray’s values as an asset on projects. Instinct selected Gray to design and build a 235,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility for freeze-dried raw pet food in Lincoln, Neb.

“Gray pretty much mirrors some of our values, which would be honesty, integrity and passion for excellence,” he says. “They also tend to have a better ownership mentality than some other general contractors that I’ve experienced. They are considerably more transparent, which helps build a relationship based on trust and competence.”

Gray developed the project concept into a design that included tempering, freeze drying, high-pressure processing, research and development, warehouse storage and a new production area utilizing dehydration and refrigeration elements.

Upon completion of the contract, Instinct selected Gray for the next project phase. Gray’s scope of work for the facility’s production, cold storage and office areas includes design-build, process engineering and equipment services developed specifically to facilitate a later Phase II expansion. The project is set to complete in 2023.

Upon completion of the contract, Instinct selected Gray for the next project phase. The project is set to complete this year.
Photos and Renderings Courtesy of Gray Construction

Cultural Fit

Gray’s values are also the core of its culture, which Jones says not only draws talent to Gray, but helps retain employees. Jones, himself, serves as an example of the opportunities for advancement toward a long career at Gray. He started as an intern in 1999, and by his 16th year, he was COO of the company. In 2020, he was named president and CEO, making him the first non-family member to run Gray.

“The year I was an intern, we had three interns,” says Jones, who is now in his 24th year at the company. “This year were just north of 60 interns. When I talked to that incoming class of interns at their orientation dinner, I told them I believe that one of them could lead the company in 25 years. We’re just so blessed with opportunities for growth. We offer a number of different services today that we didn’t in the late ’90s. There are just so many avenues for people to grow in their careers.”

Matt Youngblood, a project manager at Gray, says he was wary of large contractors when he first interviewed at Gray a little more than three years ago. “I had family that worked for [larger contractors] and they’re great companies, but they just can treat you as a number sometimes,” he says.

At Gray, he says he found that the firm was not only family owned, but treated employees like family.

“The biggest driving factor for me and who I wanted to work for all came down to the people I was going to be working with and the culture I was going to be around,” he says. ”Our mindset is, we’re a family. We we’re in it together. There’s not a whole lot of finger-pointing when stuff happens. There will always be some tough times on jobs. It’s a matter of how we can get through it together as a team.”

Now five years into his career, Youngblood says he already sees a possible path forward at Gray.

You see the people who work here and it’s evident that with hard work with dedication, you can make your own career path,” he says. “That’s what I love about it. I am a little bit younger than probably the average age of a project manager, but my whole goal is to be the hardest working one.”