From Family Farm to Fortune 500

Working at Western Union in Rochester, N.Y., Civil War telegrapher and young entrepreneur Enos Barton stumbled upon a unique opportunity. For $400, he could co-own an electrical products shop in Cleveland. There was only one problem – he needed $400. So he turned to his mother, who mortgaged the family farm and home to support her son’s venture. Little did she know the impact of this investment.

In 1869, Enos partnered with Elisha Gray, inventor of telegraphic equipment, and founded Gray and Barton. In 1872, the partnership became the Western Electric Company, which supplied components to the Western Union Telegraph Company. After the invention of the telephone, Western Electric also managed a thriving electrical distribution business, which was organized into a separate company – Graybar Electric Company, Inc. – in 1925. In 1929, Graybar’s employees purchased the company for $9 million, creating the business model of employee ownership that continues to drive the company today.

Today, Graybar is a FORTUNE 500 company and a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services.

• No. 470 on the 2010 FORTUNE 500 ranking of America’s largest companies
• On the FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies list for the ninth consecutive year (2010)
• No. 2 in the Wholesalers: Diversified industry category; Graybar ranked the previous three years at no. 1
• No. 70 on the Forbes America’s Largest Private Companies list (2010)
• On the InformationWeek 500 annual ranking of the best and brightest business technology innovators for the eighth consecutive year (2010)
• No. 6 on the 2010 Modern Distribution Management Electrical Market Leaders list (2010)
• No. 4 on Electrical Wholesaling’s Top 200 Electrical Distributors list (2010)
• No. 9 on Industrial Distribution’s Big 50 list (2010)
• On Broadband Properties’ list of top 100 companies (2010)
• No. 2 on the Human Resource Executive “Most Admired in HR” list (2009)
• No. 23 on the Selling Power “Top 50 Companies to Sell For” list (2009)