A lifelong Missourian, Robert graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1977. He started Trinity in 1979. Along with his wife, he currently lives in St. Charles, MO. His two sons are also both University of Missouri, Columbia graduates and currently working for Trinity Products. Robert has served as President and Treasurer of the National Association of Steel Pipe Distributors (NASPD), an international organization of more than 200 steel distributors. He has spent his entire career in the steel and fabrications industry. Robert bought out his original partner in 1993. Since that time, Trinity’s revenues have grown from $2.2M to $60M in 2011. Projections for sales in 2014 are $70M; with sales of over $275 million in 2022!

In 1979, Robert Griggs did something his college friends found daring, bordering on crazy: He and a business associate started their own company, Trinity Products, Inc. While his contemporaries struggled in entry-level corporate jobs, the 23-year-old Agricultural Economics major from rural Missouri saw an opportunity in the steel pipe business, and grabbed it. Initially, Trinity Products’ mission was to provide quality products and services to the construction industry, piling contractors, road-boring contractors, utility contractors, and the caisson industry. Then in 1986, Griggs secured a lease on 15 acres of property and built a fabrication facility. Adding fabrication services increased the value the company could offer its existing customers, as well as further diversify its customer base. This expansion brought about the addition of high-rise sign structures, which lead to the addition of billboard fabrication, and other more complicated fabrication. The result? Trinity set itself apart from its competition.

By the early 1990s, Griggs saw an even brighter future ahead for the steel industry and aspired to take Trinity to new heights. He bought out his partner, and by 1999, had begun expanding the company’s operation by building a new, $1.3 million facility that included a 30,000-square-foot fabrication shop. The addition of a CNC, multi-torch burning table to custom cut parts from plate significantly increased Trinity’s fabrication capabilities. Two years later, Griggs added new equipment for cutting angles, channels, and beams to facilitate the growing billboard and cell tower divisions. Responding to his customers’ specific needs and to facilitate increased production requirements, Griggs added a 10,000 sqft coating facility and a CNC beam liner to Trinity’s fabrication capabilities by mid-summer of 2002.

In 2004, Griggs broke ground for his most ambitious expansion project to date, a $15 million spiral-welded pipe mill. The move was a gamble. Only one other facility of its kind existed, and the market for spiral-welded pipe was still unproven. Griggs’ enduring goal was to be the only totally vertically integrated supplier in the steel industry. The company has enjoyed a 127 percent growth in sales each year. Annual sales have grown from $2.1 million in 1993 to projected sales of $70 million in 2014.

Griggs applies his “out-of-the-box” thinking to his business as well as the management of his company. In 1995, Trinity became one of the first companies of its size to move to “Open Book Management,” a management format that encourages employees to become involved in the decision-making process directly related to their job. At the time, Griggs’ deep-seated belief was that he could not grow Trinity’s sales, profitability, and culture on his own. To become truly profitable, he and his management team needed to become “teachers” of business. By viewing his employees as “experts” in their respective fields, workers were encouraged to voice their input and rewarded when the contribution was effective. Today, everyone – from shop and office personnel to management – understands Trinity’s income statement. The company shares financial information at regular monthly finance meetings and solicits input from employees on current issues. Benchmarks are established and goals are set collectively. As their objectives are reached, all employees share in the profits. In 2001, Griggs was honored by the state of Missouri with the Governor’s Achievement Award for Economic Development and the 2001 Innovative Training/Workforce Development Award.

There are two overriding themes when it comes to Robert Griggs: 1. Don’t tell a lie. 2. The More You Give, the More You Get. Don’t tell a lie is pretty simple as it is about the only thing you can do at Trinity that will get you fired. The more you give, the more you get is slightly more complicated. Robert believes that when you make someone else’s life better your life will be better as a result. This is not just a monetary thing either. Robert makes it a point to learn about and know the families of all of the employees and what is important to them. He will then make every attempt to help that person achieve those goals. He encourages all employees to think in this fashion as well. Each year Trinity supports one of the local food pantries with a “canned food drive” as our way of giving back to the community. With management having this mindset, employees generally feel like they are part of something and want to come to work. They look at this as more than just a job and as such, Trinity has seen a reduction in turnover throughout the company.

The last part of the puzzle that drives Robert and Trinity every day is “Continuous Improvement” starting in 2010 we embarked on a mission to get better every day! It started with a program called COSI “Circle of Success Institute” which taught us the skills to ask what’s now working; make a list and fix it! Most of the success we’ve experienced since then has been because of our “relentless pursuit to get better”!

Our Core Values:

1. We have a Boss, it’s the Customer, serve them!

2. Serve our employees through Profit Sharing!

3. Relentless Pursuit of Continuous Improvement; every day!

4. Control the controllables!

And this beginning of the new Chapter is forming an ESOP “Employee Stock Ownership Plan” in 2020 in which the employees own the company! It couldn’t be in better hands as the folks that help build this are now the Shepard’s of this great vehicle for success!