March Coatings history

1806: Samuel Tuck opens a Boston paint dealership called Paint and Color, which is later acquired by Augustine Stimson.

In 1855 Otis Merriam joined Stimson & Valentine as the other principal owner; Merriam, interestingly, had for the previous six years been associated with the original varnish plant in Cambridge.

Around 1860 Valentine's brother, Henry, joined the firm.

By 1866, both Stimson and Merriam had retired and left the Valentine brothers the sole partners in the business, which was then renamed Valentine & Company.

1870: Company relocates to New York City and acquires Minnesota Linseed Oil Paint Company.

In 1878 Valentine & Company entered the Midwest market via a Chicago branch office.

In the mid-1880’s, paint factories began springing up in population and industrial centers across the nation.

1903: Chemist L. Valentine Pulsifer, grandson of Lawson Valentine, joins company.

The first such exhibition involved a boiling water test at the Grand Rapids Furniture Show in 1908.

Prior to the stock market crash, in 1927 the seed for another important predecessor to the Valspar Corporation was planted.

In 1932, the same year that Valentine & Company began to operate as a subsidiary of the newly formed Valspar Corporation, Baudhuin-Anderson became Rockford Paint Manufacturing Company.

As previously discussed, thermoplastic acrylic lacquer automotive coatings, given their excellent appearance, were the major automotive topcoat used in the 1950-70s.

1960: Valspar merges with Rockcote Paint Company, with new headquarters in Rockford, Illinois.

As a bonus, the company reaches $1 billion in sales.A result of its diversification, growth and increasingly global presence, the company changed its name to PPG Industries in 1968.

In June 1970, privately held Minnesota Paints, Inc. of Minneapolis, with annual sales of $24 million, merged with Valspar, with annual sales of $27 million; once again, Valspar's headquarters changed, this time to Minneapolis.

However, there were drawbacks in the technology and PPG Industries introduced the first cathodic e-coat system for automotive bodies in 1973.

In effect, the company more than doubled in size through a bargain purchase: 1983 revenues for Valspar were $161 million while revenues for the Mobil division were around $180 million.

In 1987, PPG's chlor-alkali business makes a splash when it introduces the SUSTAIN® Pool Care System, delivering chlorine more evenly and accurately for easier pool care.

In 1989, PPG begins a flurry of acquisitions that expand the company's offering of automotive, industrial, aerospace and packaging coatings around the world.

In October 1990 the company acquired certain assets of DeSoto, Inc., which had combined revenues of approximately $45 million.

Following the much smaller purchases of container coatings and powder coatings businesses, Valspar acquired Hi-Tek Polymers, Inc., from Rhône Poulenc in May 1991.

McWhorter, the larger of the two entities, was then spun off to Valspar shareholders in April 1994.

In 1998, PPG proves its "can-do" attitude by developing more efficient solvent-based coatings for easy-opening lids on beverage cans.

1999: Purchase of the packaging coatings business of Dexter Corporation vaults Valspar into the number one position worldwide in packaging coatings.

Expanded Plant #1 by 33,000 square feet for a 4" monorail E-coat system (operation May 2002)

In 2008, PPG makes the largest acquisition in its history, of the SigmaKalon Group, a worldwide coatings producer.

In 2014, total sales for paint were approximately 22 billion dollars.

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