Littleton Firm Helps Construction Stay Clean | Eggrock Inc. brings bathrooms-in-a-box stateside
I have lots of interests, and lots of ideas but a relatively low appetite for risk. So, while I’m sure I’d make a great business owner or CEO, the prospect of ditching my career and trying to raise money to start a venture that may or may not work at all isn’t all that attractive.
Perhaps that’s why I admire people like Jeff Barrett, the founder, president and CEO of Eggrock Inc. in Littleton.
The Plunge
Barrett is not an architect. He’s an accomplished business development executive who before starting Eggrock had brought several companies in the medical device and aerospace industries to IPO. But his passion is for architecture and a little more than five years ago, he was trying to think of a way to bring his expertise together with his passion.
He started attending construction industry conferences and the one complaint he heard again and again was that getting bathrooms into large developments like hotels, hospitals and dormitory buildings, was a huge, expensive, time consuming pain.
“You’ve got eight people who have to work in the tiny space, and if the tile isn’t right, is it because the carpenter didn’t frame it right? Did the drywall guy make a mistake?” Barrett said.
It’s hard to tell after the fact. And at that point, what’s a developer to do? Start over?
Barrett’s solution was to design and construct complete bathrooms for large developments in individual steel-framed boxes that can be lifted into place and simply hooked up to awaiting plumbing and electrical systems.
With his own money and that of a couple angel investors, Barrett set about making the idea a reality from some pretty shabby space in Concord.
A couple of years ago, the 60- to 70-employee company moved to 60,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space off Foster Street in Littleton, very close to both Route 2 and Interstate 495.
Walking through the manufacturing facility, Barrett pointed out a variety of bathrooms the company is currently working on, from very ordinary looking dormitory bathrooms to highly specialized bathrooms for hospitals and sleek, modern bathrooms for high-end hotels.
Some are highly specialized, including one intended for use by patients awaiting bariatric surgery and another with tracks installed in the ceiling to lift handicapped patients.
Others are more ordinary. Being manufactured away from the project they'll be part of doesn't limit Eggrock's or project developers' options.
All of them are manufactured and assembled on site, securely wrapped and shipped all over North America. The bathroom-in-a-box concept is already popular in Europe and Japan, Barrett said. But Eggrock is the first such manufacturer in the United States.
And the company is on the cusp of substantial growth.
Barrett said the Littleton plant is its only location, but it’s looking into establishing plants in the South and West. One job currently underway in Littleton is being shipped to Vancouver by train. Additional locations would make the logistics of that operation a lot simpler, Barrett said.
Eggrock is also looking into possibilities in other markets, such as residential construction and renovation and putting Eggrock bathrooms in existing buildings.
And as someone who's renovated a bathroom recently, I think it might be easier to tear a hole in a house and have an Eggrock bathroom installed. n
Got news for our Industrial Strength column? E-mail WBJ Managing Editor Matthew L. Brown at mbrown@wbjournal.com
Watch as an Eggrock bathroom is assembled:
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