GRS - the early years
From humble beginnings half a century ago, GRS – originally 'Galliford Road Stone' – has grown to become the country’s largest trader, transporter and handler of construction aggregates and waste materials, plus associated services.
The company gained its independence after a management buy-out from Galliford in 1997. That was also the year that an aspiring salesman Jon Fisher – now GRS chief executive – joined the new team with a can-do attitude and bags of ambition.
That spirit – still at the heart of the GRS core values today – helped the young firm to achieve rapid success, trading aggregates in the Midlands and South East, and building relationships that led to the company’s early involvement is some major construction schemes. In turn, that success led to the formation of a sister company for bagged aggregates, GRS Bagging, just three years later.
Realising a vision for growth
Both GRS businesses – GRS Trading and GRS Bagging (now GRS Building Products) - continued to grow through the mid-2000s with complementary joint ventures in waste management and rail freight in key locations. GRS became involved in many of the major infrastructure projects of the era – including the likes of Heathrow Terminal 5, Wembley Stadium and the M6 Toll – allowing the business to expand as it picked up work with more and more Tier 1 clients. Demonstrating remarkable resilience during the economic downturn, GRS continued to perform well, growing into new markets, trading materials for recycling, and adding to its network of bagging plants.
In 2012, a second management buy-out, led by Jon Fisher, allowed further expansion and a new focus on people development. As the new CEO Jon set about delivering his own vision for GRS, to create the only nationwide business of its kind, serving British construction with materials solutions, waste services and end-to-end logistics.
That vision then led to further strategic acquisitions, joint ventures and commercial partnerships that have become a hallmark of the GRS business model. It's one of the reasons why GRS was named among the highest climbers the Sunday Times top track 250 growth companies for four years running.
Becoming a nationwide player
In 2015 and 2016, after expanding in the north, east and south west, 2017 proved to be a seminal year for GRS. Firstly, the company acquired West Country building materials firm Maen Karne in January 2017, followed by two further bagging plants in the north. Then at the end of the same year came the acquisition of London infrastructure services and marine freight business S Walsh & Sons which became a core part of the company’s newest division GRS Integrated Solutions, including its contracting arm ISC. In recent years GRS has made further acquisitions and joint ventures, complementing the company’s end-to-end solutions.
As a result, today GRS occupies a unique position, employing 800 people at 50 locations nationwide, from trading offices and bagging plants to rail depots and recycling centres. Between them they handle around 20 million tonnes of materials each year.
Seeing the opportunity to increase circularity through the use of industrial by-products as aggregates, especially in London and the South East, GRS is an exclusive supplier of high-quality secondary and recycled aggregates, applying its rail, river and sea freight capabilities to deliver materials with the lowest possible carbon footprint.
