The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and since 1989 has been led by his son Martin Bouygues. In 2016 it had over approximately 118,000 employees in 90 countries, generating £á31.768 billion in revenue.
The group specialises in construction (Colas Group and Bouygues Construction), real estate development (Bouygues Immobilier), media (TF1 Group), and telecommunications (Bouygues Telecom).