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100+ Years of Building Better Metal Solutions

About Butler Manufacturing™

For nearly 120 years, the name Butler Manufacturing has been synonymous with innovation. We pioneered the start of the global metal building industry in 1901 when we challenged the status quo.

Today, we are an extremely versatile and experienced multi-million dollar company focused on providing high-quality commercial and industrial metal building systems that continue to break the mold.

Industry-Leading Services & Designs

We offer creative and experienced design, manufacturing, and marketing services for commercial and industrial metal building systems. Using advanced construction technology and our in-depth industry expertise, we design and construct one-of-a-kind buildings that adhere to the highest quality and safety standards.

Our team creates better answers for building design requirements through new products, new technology, and customized building designs. With nearly 120 years leading the charge in construction innovation, we are more than prepared to dig into any challenge sent our way. 

Butler® By The Numbers

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NEARLY 120 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

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1,000 AFFILIATED BUTLER
®
BUILDERS

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6 MANUFACTURING PLANTS IN NORTHAMERICA

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We create buildings that do more. From proven building quality to leading design services, we are known for providing better building solutions.

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Take pride in your work. It’s an old-fashioned value, but it’s at the heart of what we do. That’s why we don’t let just anyone construct a Butler® building.

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Our parent company, BlueScope Steel, is positioned to grow in some of the world's most dynamic economies and is firmly focused on the future.

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Built By Hand, Backed By Experience

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HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
It all started with a stock tank. Friends Emanuel Norquist and Charles Butler met in Clay Center, Kansas, as Emanuel was working to build durable preassembled tanks from copper-bearing galvanized steel that wouldn’t rust or leak. Butler, a risk-taker, saw enormous untapped sales potential with this project. This was the start of Butler Manufacturing Company.
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THE FIRST BUTLER® BUILDING
In 1909, Emanuel needed a garage to protect his Metz automobile. His brother Victor assembled corrugated galvanized-steel culvert sheets bolted to an all-steel framework to create a sturdy, lasting garage. By 1910, the first Butler® building was sold to corporate secretary Fred Rufi, which was used in central Kansas City for more than 45 years. When Butler introduced a sturdy two-car version, the market response was immediate: Butler Manufacturing Company was in the building business for good.
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THE GREAT GRAIN BIN ADVENTURE
The popularity of steel bins continued to grow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a call out for bids on 30,666 steel bins—an order 1.5 times more than the number produced by the entire industry in 1938. Butler took on the challenge and, against phenomenal odds, refurbished an abandoned plant in Galesburg, Illinois, supplied it with machinery, staffed it, and mass-produced 14,500 steel bins in 59 days, plus another 6,000 in just 15 days.
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RIGID FRAME INNOVATIONS
Brothers Wilbur Larkin (Butler Farm Equipment Division) and Kenneth Larkin (civil engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City) worked together to shape an industry with a quality pre-engineered building design that provided more usable interior space, looked better, used less steel, and could be fabricated and erected faster and with fewer people. By 1940, Butler Manufacturing Company had a complete line of rigid frame buildings ready for the market.
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EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES
While embracing the technological advances of a newly opened research center and still savoring the 50th-anniversary celebration, Butler began to feel the strains of growth. To maintain a competitive edge, Butler developed a plan to shift leadership into a product-line organization, putting quality management close to a product and its particular customers. Five product divisions were formed. Manufacturing buildings for commercial, industrial, institutional, and rural use continues to be the strength of the company.
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INTEGRATING NEW MARKETS
The Butler product line evolved into a comprehensive building system, including Butler® frames, walls, roofs, fasteners, doors, and windows. An integrated approach to construction enabled Butler development teams to overcome traditional limitations. The expanded size and flexibility of pre-engineered buildings helped bring the Butler way of building to many new markets.
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MAKING INDUSTRY HISTORY
Butler extends the long-term value of buildings by making them virtually weathertight—an innovation in the industry. Totally waterproof double-lock roof seams with expansion and contraction provision and insulated purlins not only added to the durability of the structure, but also aid in energy conservation. Butler also came out with new building systems that defied traditional ideas about pre-engineering, such as Multistory, Long Span, and the distinct look of the Landmark™ structural system. Today's Butler Manufacturing is all about flexibility and options.
A NEW BEGINNING
On April 27, 2004, Butler Manufacturing was acquired by BlueScope Steel Limited of Melbourne, Australia. BlueScope Steel is a flat-steel products company, with a manufacturing and marketing reach that spans Australia, Asia, and North America, focused on developing markets for its downstream coated and painted steel products (such as COLORBOND® and ZINCALUME® steel) and developing complete steel solutions for its customers.
With the acquisition of Butler Manufacturing Company, BlueScope Steel is now the leader in pre-engineered buildings in North America and China and is No. 1 in premium steel building products in China.
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FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE
At Butler Manufacturing, you can trust that we will always challenge the status quo to do and be best.
Our team actively seeks out ways to advance and grow alongside the ever-changing steel industry. We are dedicated to innovating and investing in new technologies that streamline the building process and create more effective and efficient solutions for our clients for centuries to come.

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