Coolest Things Made in Missouri 2026: Wireless portable lift system

Peter Gray

Owner: Peter Gray
Employees: 225
Founded: 1952
Web: GrayUSA.com
2025 Revenue: $75 million-$80 million
Product Pricing: Undisclosed
Why is this the coolest product made in Missouri? The WPLS isn’t just another lift – it’s a high-tech, highly capable, wireless industrial tool that showcases Missouri craftsmanship, real innovation and hard-working engineering all in one package.

Gray Manufacturing builds its wireless portable lift system – sold in all 50 states and locations across the world including Europe and Australia – at its facility in St. Joseph. With over 25 patents, WLPS is the heavy-duty lift industry’s original wireless mobile column lift system, designed to elevate vehicles with a weight capacity of 28,000-112,000 pounds – think semitrailers – and eliminate bulky communication and power cords to promote safety and efficiency.

SBJ: What was the inspiration for this product?
Pete Gray, owner and CEO: That’s a good question. We looked at developing this many years ago … and we had an engineer who came from a company across town … that had worked with wireless products before. And so the Achilles’ heel of this product has always been these big cords that go in-between. They kind of daisy-chain the four [cords] together, or eight … They get driven over, they get broken. They’re expensive to replace. And so we were blessed with some really good patents that we’ve been able to charge royalties to almost all of our competition.

SBJ: Can you talk about problem-solving associated with this product?
Gray: [Cords] can be a tripping hazard, but more than anything, the cables are just very awkward and cumbersome to work with. It just makes life a lot simpler.

SBJ: Talk about client adoption and use of the product.
Gray: Actually, we first introduced it in 2001, and it was interesting. Our competition did not like it, and a lot of them were from Europe, and they did not believe that we should be able to patent such a technology. Eventually they did get to a point where they realized that they needed the technology. We tend to get some Pacific Rim companies that … will copy the technology and start up somewhere, and then we kind of have to go after them or their distribution and shut them down. But anyway, we have been able to license to all the major competition so far.

SBJ: What was the impact this particular product has had for Gray Manufacturing?
Gray: It’s become probably 40% of our manufacturing capacity, but because we licensed to all of our main competition, we get a piece of just about everything sold in the U.S. We probably have 90%-plus of the market, because of the licensing we have as well.

SBJ: How would you rate the impact this product has on the St. Joseph economy and the Missouri economy?
Gray: Well, that’s a good question. We probably have about $35 million-$45 million in revenue from these things, and then we also get kind of our mailbox money, which is another $2 million-$2.5 million per year. And we employ currently 220 or so people.

SBJ: Why is it important to your company to manufacture this product in St. Joseph here in the state of Missouri?
Gray: We like to describe ourselves as vertically integrated, and in simple terms, it means we’re control freaks. We like to have control over our quality and our delivery, and if we outsource, we simply cannot do that. And so the best way for us to control our quality and our delivery is to make everything ourselves that we can. And, you know, we don’t make everything.