The company has remained in the Wagner family, although company workers own over 40 percent of the corporation through its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Over 400 employees work for the JWA parent company, and Wagner said that more than 300 of these work for Grabber Construction. Headquartered in Concord, Calif., it is one division of a broader enterprise called John Wagner Associates. Grabber also does business in Canada, Europe, Japan and South America. Today, GRABBER Construction Products is a global company with a strong presence in many regions of the United States. Wagner, who is now the Chairman of the Board and a Vice President of the company. “We’ve always prided ourselves on being visionary, and staying one steps ahead of the competition,” said the founder’s son, J.B. The result was the LOX recess and bit system, a technologically advanced driver system engineered for high-torque applications that has now been patented worldwide. For several years, the Grabber Construction founder worked to create a recess and driver bit that would take full advantage of the power tools used to drive the screws, but would also last much longer than traditional designs Wagner spent considerable time in job sites in Hawaii, testing out his ideas. At first, Wagner looked for a torque fastening system, but when he couldn’t locate one that matched his high expectations and standards, so he decided to develop his own. Workers on those metal frames said they were quickly burning through their drill bits. “They were having serious problems in Hawaii, which is 90 percent steel frame construction, both commercial and residential,” Wagner said. the LOX recess and bit system and, of course, the Grabber screw tell a colorful story of Wagner’s long efforts to solve problems in commercial and residential construction.Ībout 10 years ago, Wagner, who has a second home in Hawaii, learned that construction contractors in the Aloha State were having some problems. The names of Grabber’s top selling screws and related products – the Streaker screw. Today, Wagner himself is well known in the construction world, but the unique company that he founded, Grabber Construction Products, is known even better. Luckily for the world of construction, John “Brad” Wagner is not one of those people.Įver since Wagner started selling construction supplies as a sales rep for a major company in the late 1950s, he has worked on developing new kinds of screws that would be better than what was available to use on drywall, in steel construction, with power tools and in difficult environments. Most people, even those who do a lot of work around the house, don’t give much of a second thought to a basic item like a screw.
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