3M Company history

It became a floundering manufacturer of sandpaper in Duluth in 1905 with Edgar Ober as its president.

1907 – Leadership in the Making Future 3M President and Chairman of the Board, William L. McKnight, joined Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. as an assistant bookkeeper, and would become to be best known for shaping the company’s culture of innovation and collaboration.

1910: A new factory is built in St Paul.

1914: William L. McKnight's long reign begins with his appointment as 3M general manager.

1916 – Substantial Profits Thanks to the Three-M-ite cloth and a boost in business from World War I, 3M posted substantial profits and declared its first dividend.

The world’s first waterproof sandpaper, which reduced airborne dusts during automobile manufacturing, was developed in the early 1920s.

In 1923 a salesman in an auto body painting shop noticed that the process used to paint cars in two tones worked poorly.

1925 – Masking Tape Invented While testing abrasive samples at a body shop, Richard Drew, a 3M lab assistant, noted that painters were having trouble masking car parts.

Its most famous adaptation came in 1930, when some industrious 3M workers found a way to graft cellophane, a Du Pont invention, to adhesive, thus creating a transparent tape.

By 1932 the new product was doing so well that 3M's main client base shifted from furniture and automobile factories to office supply stores.

1937 – An Investment in Innovation 3M Vice President, Richard P. Carlton, established a Central Research Laboratory to pursue research in technologies with long-term potential leading to 3M breakthroughs, such as reflective materials used to improve highway signs and markings.

1938 – Reflective Traffic Signs Born After 3M™ Scotchlite™ Reflective Sheeting was introduced commercially in 1938, the first traffic sign featuring this new product was erected in Minneapolis one year later.

1939 – Easy Dispensing Scotch® Brand welcomes the "snail," the iconic, handheld tape dispenser.

Now that 3M was publicly traded (having debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 1946), investment bankers took to recommending it as a buy, business magazines sent reporters to write about it, and other companies tried to figure out how 3M continued to excel.

To meet its building needs, in 1947 3M issued its first bond offerings.

In 1949, when President McKnight became chairman of the board (with A.G. Bush also moving from daily operations to the boardroom), it marked the end of a tremendous era for 3M. Under McKnight, 3M had grown almost 20-fold.

1950 – Beautiful Productivity 3M™ Thermo-Fax™ Copier was introduced, changing office productivity for making duplicate copies.

1951 – Going Global 3M established its International Division and new international companies were created in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The original formula for Scotchgard, a water repellent applied to fabrics, was discovered accidentally in 1952 by 3M chemists Patsy Sherman and Samuel Smith.

1954 – 3M Goes Hollywood RCA uses Scotch® Magnetic Tape to record television programs for the first time.

When Building 47 was completed in 1955, it was the world’s largest abrasives plant.

1956 – Protecting Fabrics 3M introduced Scotchgard™ Fabric and Upholstery Protector to the textile industry.

1957 – Double the Sticking Power The tape product line was diversified with the introduction of Scotch® Double-Coated Tape.

1958 – Scotch-Brite™ Scours the Industry Scotch-Brite™ Cleaning Pads were marketed for industrial use which was a new application for the non-woven product.

1960 – Hypoallergenic and Magical Tape 3M Micropore™ Surgical Tape, the first hypoallergenic tape, was introduced and was a key to the success of 3M’s health care business.

1973 – Carpool Commuting 3M creates the first van-pooling program in the United States in Maplewood, MN, eventually branching to other states.

Sales growth also slowed during the decade, particularly in the oil crunch of 1974, ending 3M's phenomenal string of averaging a 15 percent growth rate.

1975 – Eliminating Pollution 3M launched Pollution Prevention Pays, empowering employees to guide the company’s sustainability efforts.

3M launched "Press 'n Peel" in stores in four cities in 1977, but results were disappointing.

1978 – Seeing Red The blue 3M logo is replaced with a new, rounded logo in a specially formulated color – 3M Red.

In 1979 3M introduced a digital audio recording system called "3M Digital Audio Mastering System".

1980: The company begins selling Post-it notes.

1984 – International Expansion Opens New Doors 3M became the first wholly-owned, foreign-invested enterprise in China.

1985 – A Note of Many Colors The Post-it® Note product line expanded from yellow to include four new colors.

1990 – Privacy Please 3M™ Privacy Computer Filters were introduced, helping protect information displayed on monitors.

1992: Foreign sales produce more than 50 percent of total sales for the first time.

A major restructuring of European operations was completed in 1993: manufacturing plants were closed and consolidated and the workforce was trimmed in response to declining operating income.

Kevin Kelly wrote in a 1994 Business Week article, "It turned out that the creative juices that had transformed 3M into a paragon of innovation and the inventor of everything from ubiquitous yellow Post-it notes to surgical staples weren't producing new products fast enough."

1995 – Internet Debut 3M launches its first website, giving its customers links to thousands of pages of information on 3M programs, products and technologies.

In 1996, 3M dismantled the Information, Imaging and Electronics sector, which accounted for a fifth of its business.

In 1997 the company achieved one of DeSimone's goals: 30 percent of total sales were generated from products introduced within the past four years.

But 3M's numbers began slipping again in 1998.

3M also reorganized into six business segments in 1999: Industrial Markets; Transportation, Graphics, and Safety; Health Care; Consumer and Office Products; Electro and Communications; and Specialty Material.

In 2000 the company began marketing these films under the Vikuiti brand.

2001: GE veteran W. James McNerney, Jr., takes over as chairman and CEO, becoming the first outsider at the helm in the company's history.

On its 100th anniversary, 3M changed its legal name to "3M Company" on April 8, 2002.

In October 2003, 3M implemented a major realignment of its research and development operations.

In 2004, sales topped $20 billion for the first time, with innovative new products contributing significantly to growth.

3M divested its pharmaceutical unit through three deals in 2006, netting more than US$2 billion.

2007 – Consumer Products Continue to Innovate The Scotch-Brite™ brand introduced the first disposable toilet scrubber with built-in bleach.

On September 8, 2008, 3M announced an agreement to acquire Meguiar's, a car-care products company that was family-owned for over a century.

2009 – Analytical Sound Waves 3M’s healthcare business introduced the 3M Littmann® Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200, a next-generation auscultation device featuring Bluetooth wireless technology that transfers heart, lung and other body sounds to software for further analysis.

Ross Reels had been acquired by 3M in 2010.

In December 2011, 3M completed the acquisition of the Winterthur Technology Group, a bonded abrasives company.

On January 3, 2012, it was announced that the Office and Consumer Products Division of Avery Dennison was being bought by 3M for $550 million.

In May 2013, 3M sold Scientific Anglers and Ross Reels to Orvis.

2014 – Perfecting the Patent 3M reached an innovation milestone with the issuance of its 100,000th patent.

2016 – Building Out Innovation 3M opened a state-of-the-art, research and development laboratory at the global headquarters in Maplewood, MN.

2017 – Staying Visibly Active A new type of 3M™ Scotchlite™ Reflective Material becomes an attractive product for athletic activewear manufacturers.