The family plumbing shop that grew into one of the Midwest's largest building-systems contractors — now employee-owned and Ankeny-based.
Bernard “Bernie” Baker Jr. and his wife Berniece founded the company in 1963 as a small plumbing contractor on the east side of Des Moines. In the mid-1980s Bernie handed leadership to his son, Bernard “BJ” Baker III.
Under the family the business grew into a full building-systems firm — mechanical, electrical, sheet metal, building and process automation, security, and fire systems — and moved its headquarters to Ankeny. In 2019 it became an employee-owned company through an ESOP.
From a two-person plumbing shop, Baker Group grew to roughly 1,150 employees across locations in Iowa and Missouri, and was named Mechanical Contractor of the Year in 2023. Its move to employee ownership in 2019 secured the legacy the Baker family built.
It remains one of Ankeny's largest and most respected employers.
Baker Group is based in Ankeny, Iowa. A leading Midwest specialty contractor; employee-owned and headquartered in Ankeny
1963.
Bernard “Bernie” Baker Jr. & Berniece Baker — founders (1963)
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