The Greenbrier Companies is an American publicly traded transportation manufacturing corporation based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, United States. Greenbrier specializes in transportation services, notably freight railcar manufacturing, railcar refurbishment and railcar leasing/management services. The company is one of the leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of rail freight equipment in North America and Europe. It also has operations in South America and Turkey. Greenbrier is a leading provider of wheelsets, parts, management, leasing and other services to the railroad and related transportation industries in North America. As of August 31, 2021, Greenbrier employs 12,155 people across its global operations. Formed in 1981 and publicly traded since 1994, the company generates revenues of US$2.8 billion.
The company has manufacturing facilities in Paragould and Marmaduke, Arkansas; Świdnica, Poland; Hortolândia, Brazil; and Adana, Turkey, as well as three railcar manufacturing facilities in Mexico (Monclova, Ciudad Sahagún, and Tlaxcala) and three in Romania (Arad, Caracal, and Drobeta-Turnu Severin).
History
Gunderson Inc. In 1919, Chester Ellsworth Gunderson, the son of a Swedish immigrant, founded the Wire Wheel Sales & Service Company, acting as a distribution partner for the Houk Company, a Pennsylvania-based wire wheels manufacturer. His brother, Alvin Gunderson, joined the company in 1923. In 1925, the company became the Wheel & Rim Service Inc.
By the 1930s, the company had expanded into other automobile parts servicing. After an unsuccessful foray into the fertilizer distribution business, the company began to manufacture trailers, which required an investment of over $12,000. In 1937, the company began manufacturing dual-axle trailers suitable for on- and off-road use. The new trailer design was a commercial success and, in 1938, the incorporated company Gunderson Bros. was formed with its factory in Linnton, Portland, Oregon. In 1941, the company began building barges. The company distributed, installed and pioneered the use of General Motors diesel engines.
In 1938, the company was near bankruptcy, in part due to the effects of the Great Depression and in part due to the Gundersons' own financial mismanagement. The company's main creditor took control of their accounts and began to pay their suppliers. Yet the company's financial position remained tenuous.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the company handled assembly work for the United States Navy; in 1941, a loan from the Navy enabled Gunderson Bros. to build a shipyard. During the same period, the company's continued debts caused the Federal Government to take the original factory as security. The company also constructed lifeboats, landing crafts and other vessels, as well as trailers for the United States Army. A shortage of manpower also led to the first women working in the construction sheds.
In 1942, the company became Gunderson Bros. Engineering Corporation. After World War II, the Linnton facility was closed and the company owned comprehensive facilities for large-scale metal engineering as well as a slipway for launching ships at the Front Avenue manufacturing facility. Construction of marine vessels such as tugs, peacetime barges, trawlers and more specialized craft continued in the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, the company was building vessels as long as and as wide as . Other postwar business lines included metal water towers, large-scale metal storage tanks, bridges and structural steel for buildings, as well as specialized equipment such as metal slipways for the McNary Dam (1950s), a dry dock for the Port of Portland (1963) and the vessel RP FLIP (1962).
In 1958, the company entered the freight railcar business with a successful bid to construct 200 boxcar underframes for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The business was successful and profitable, and the order expanded, with Gunderson eventually building more than 2,000 frames in the first contract.