Graco Inc.

The firm was established in 1926 by brothers L. L. and Russell J. Gray as the Gray Company, Inc., and was for many years a family-owned business selling automobile lubrication equipment to service stations and automobile dealership service departments.

During World War II the company made cartridge dies, aircraft parts, mobile lubricating rigs, and tank track pins for the war effort. It broadened its product base after the war to eventually include specialized pumps, regulators, valves, atomizing devices, and accessories; portable painting and cleaning equipment; and sophisticated paint circulating and application technology. In the late 1950s it began an expansion into Europe, Latin America, and the Far East. The corporation went public in 1969 and changed its name to Graco Inc.

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