For Wayne Brothers, the contractor’s stated goal is simple enough to understand, as its website touts the company as a client’s “proactive partner” that will “do everything in our power to anticipate challenges, reduce risk and add value.” Emphasizing the seriousness of the message, the company also states, in bold, “You have our word.”
Website promises can be slippery, but in the case of the Wayne Brothers, their word has proven to be solid. Based on reported revenue, the promise to its customers is paying off. In ENR’s first Texas & Southeast specialty company ranking, which combines its two subregions — Texas and Louisiana and Southeast — Davidson, NC-based Wayne Bros. reported regional revenue of $236.1 million. While the company did not report its revenue in 2023, it reported $173 million in 2022, which was a 36% increase in two years.
In 2024, the contractor earned most of its revenue from work in the Carolinas, with $161.7 million in North Carolina projects and approximately $50.1 million in work in South Carolina.
Wayne Brothers also regularly performs a wide variety of plumbing work for its customers.
Photo courtesy Wayne Brothers
In ENR’s national ranking of the Top 500 Specialty Contractors, Wayne Brothers was ranked No. 199, with revenue of $236.5 million.
Testimonials tell the story of how Wayne Brothers continues to grow. A frequent customer, David Wheeler, construction manager with Charlotte-based residential development builder Carocon, told ENR that Carocon hires Wayne Brothers for nearly all of its residential development work in the Carolinas. It uses the company as a turnkey contractor for all site work, including excavation, installation of utilities and construction pads, as well as paving and related items.
“They have leaders from the top down,” says Wheeler. “They’ve done a fantastic job of empowering all of their employees. It’s such a can-do attitude. They never bring problems without solutions, which makes our jobs that much easier.”
Another client the company vouches for is Paul A. Hayes III with Mercedes Benz. Hayes says the partnership with Wayne Brothers on manufacturing facility closings is an “orchestra of engineering, logistics and construction. My colleagues are always amazed at Wayne Brothers’ ability to accomplish so much in such a short time.”
“Our safety culture is not only [about] behaviors, but the mindsets that support those behaviors.”
—Jim Rhodes, senior vice president of civil construction, Wayne Brothers
Keith Wayne, managing director of Wayne Brothers, says the company takes a “strategic approach to how we want to appear in the construction world”. Specifically, this means representing yourself as a subcontractor with experience and skill in multiple work disciplines, along with diversified experiences with design and construction projects. While the specialist contractor has traditionally focused on concrete as its core business, Wayne notes that the company has increased its focus on industrial trades and the civil construction side, which includes grading and heavy construction.
“Our industrial group is growing quite rapidly now, and we’re really expanding that service,” he says.
In addition, the contractor’s recent acquisition of Southern Engineering Co., a century-old company, provides the contractor with a subsidiary entity to support the design needs of the project.
Looking back to 2024, Isaiah Wayne, president, notes that the company was fortunate to have several large industrial projects that were negotiated. “Manufacturing was booming in 2024, especially around steel production, automotive, chipmakers, even data centers were coming back,” he says.
After a robust 2024, Wayne notes that some sectors have cooled off in 2025. “A lot of the EV phenomenon is just putting battery plants on hold. [and] investment in electric vehicles,” he adds. At the same time, he says the 2025 surge in data center construction is “keeping us a little busy.”
Overall, Wayne says the economic climate for construction right now is tougher.
A commitment to safety has helped the company log more than 5 million hours without a lost time incident.
Photo courtesy Wayne Brothers
Intentional success
The contractor reported numerous other 2024 accomplishments at ENR, noting that it “achieved significant milestones that reflect our growth, innovation and commitment to excellence,” including work at the Wolfspeed Semiconductor facility in Siler City, N.C. Wayne says the project demonstrated its ability to “lead in complex, high-tech environments through the collaboration of engineers and construction teams integrated early with project owners.”
The company also expanded its footprint in the Southeast in 2024 with a $35.5 million investment in a new operations center in South Carolina that created 170 full-time jobs. Its current total number of employees is more than 750, which is reinforced by the company’s reputation as a good place to work. Last year, USA Today named it one of the top workplaces in the country. Additionally, the contractor ranked first in Charlotte magazine’s top jobs among large companies.
Wayne Brothers also offers engineering and virtual design and construction services.
Photo courtesy Wayne Brothers
Wayne Brothers’ annual success, both financially and otherwise, is no happy accident. Executives tout the company’s culture of empowering employees to proactively contribute solutions to problems, likening it to a long and constant journey to find ways to keep improving.
Over the past eight years, the contractor’s leadership has been consistently and consistently communicating with and listening to all employees about how to improve, in every aspect.
“We looked at what we want our people to do,” says Keith Wayne. This question led to the establishment of the company’s four core values: developing and empowering people; to be accountable and responsible; pioneering proactive solutions; and nurture relationships. From there, Wayne says, “We took these 25 core behaviors that we believe are necessary for all employee groups and tied them to these core values.”
Today, over the course of 25 weeks, employees discuss one behavior each week.
“Twice a year, we’re talking about a particular behavior,” says Wayne. “We start most of our meetings by talking about that weekly behavior and how it lives, and how it looks in the field, on the project, in the office.”
Safety is a prominent topic in these discussions, and for good reason, says Jim Rhodes, senior vice president of civil construction.
“Our safety culture is not only [about] behaviors, but the mindsets that support those behaviors,” says Rhodes. “We created a safety bonus program where [in 2025] we will pay over a million dollars in safety bonuses to our craftsmen. We’re essentially sharing the savings we’re generating by working safely with the people who make that work safe.”
Demand for manufacturing facilities and data centers has kept the company busy in recent years.
Photo courtesy Wayne Brothers
These efforts help contribute to a strong safety record. The company currently has more than 5 million hours of work without a lost time incident.
Good numbers don’t automatically equal a security bonus. Beyond working safely, employees must come forward with their safety concerns.
“We want them to have the mindset that safety always comes first,” says Rhodes, who describes the approach as creating “a catalytic mechanism for them to think about the risks and risk behaviors around them. It also gives us a database of information to draw from.”
While the company has had a safety bonus program for many years, Rhodes says that in the last 12 to 24 months, “we’ve really pumped the gas into that program to make sure that everyone is participating in the way that we really need them to. We’ve increased that incentive and people have really engaged and worked harder to qualify.”
