2021 Fastest Growing Companies, No. 8: Grinder, Taber & Grinder Inc.
By Jason Bolton – Managing Editor, Memphis Business Journal
MBJ's annual Fastest Growing Companies list marks revenue milestones for Memphis’ largest — and arguably some of the most important — economic engines for the metro area.
Those companies designated as Fastest Growing come from MBJ’s annual Top 100 Memphis-Area Private Companies list, which is ranked by gross revenue for the most recently completed year. The 50 Fastest Growing Companies were ranked by their revenue growth from 2018 to 2020.
And the fact that revenue grew in the COVID-riddled year that was 2020, when compared to 2018, deserves accolades. While 2020 may prove to be an outlier in the area’s social and business history, there is no denying the accomplishment of growing revenue under trying market conditions. In this year's Fastest Growing Companies, some of the ways that growth was constructed — hint, multiple entries in the top 10 are builders — come to light as we focus in on the top 10 fastest growing companies and rank the top 50 companies overall.
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Grinder, Taber & Grinder
Revenue growth, 2018 to 2020: 45.71%
2020 revenue: $140.5 million
Big or small, Grinder, Taber & Grinder’s tagline — “building is our foundation” — is apt. The general contracting, construction management, design-build, and pre-construction services firm was founded in 1968 and touts the ability to go from smaller interior projects to builds topping $100 million in cost.
Big-name projects have been the norm for Grinder, Taber & Grinder over the past three years, which saw the firm go from $96 million in revenue in 2018 to more than $140 million last year. Among those headlining projects are the Gibson Guitar factory conversion into the FedEx Logistics headquarters Downtown for the FedEx Corp. subsidiary.
Equally impressive is the conversion of the former Sears Crosstown facility into the now-bustling Crosstown Concourse. That project achieved the highest level of LEED certification, Platinum, and is said to be the world’s largest — at 1.1 million square feet — to hit that sustainability standard for a renovation.
Other notable projects in the metro area include The Grove at GPAC; Ballet Memphis; Orgill Inc.’s headquarters, and Mueller Industries HQ — both of which are in Collierville — and the TraVure office building in Germantown.
Grinder, Taber & Grinder has a notable presence outside of Memphis, as well, with recent builds in Little Rock, Jackson, and Nashville, and an active focus across the tri-state region.
No less important, in 2019, the Mid-South Minority Business Council (MMBC) Continuum awarded Grinder, Taber & Grinder its Corporation of the Year award for its emphasis on diversity in construction.
