The Concrete Engineering Co. was founded by C. Louis Meyer in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1912. The company manufactured reusable steel forms and reinforcing bars used by the com- mercial construction industry to create buildings out of concrete. By the end of the 1920s, when annual sales had climbed to $6 million, Meyer's company included a plant at Cicero, Illinois. In 1946, a decade after its name changed to the Ceco Steel Products Corp., the company moved its headquarters from Omaha to Cicero. By 1950, annual sales were about $40 million, and 1,500 of the company's 2,800 total employees worked in the Chicago area. In 1961, operating plants in suburban Lemont and Romeoville, as well as Cicero, the company name was shortened to Ceco Corp. In 1980, when annual sales stood at about $400 million, the headquarters moved from Cicero to Oak Brook Terrace. In 1990, Ceco merged with H. H. Robertson Inc. of Pittsburgh; the new entity, known as the Robertson-Ceco Corp., made its home in California.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.