Shamrock Corporation history

A site in Painesville, Ohio, on the Lake Erie shore just 30 miles east of Cleveland was chosen for the new plant, which went onstream in 1912.

By 1915 Diamond’s ability to produce soda ash exceeded customer demand, and the company began using soda ash and limestone to produce caustic soda.

In 1918 Diamond began making bicarbonate of soda.

In 1920 Diamond’s second plant opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, producing silicate of soda made by combining soda ash with sand.

In 1925 the company expanded its product line again.

In 1929 the company began making caustic soda through the new process of electrolysis of salt, a method of running brine through electricity.

In 1930, the first full year of the ensuing Depression, Diamond posted $4.9 million in earnings on $16.3 million in sales.

In 1931 sales fell by $2 million.

In 1936 Diamond began a modest research program that resulted in the production of magnesium oxide.

In 1942 Diamond’s Raymond F. Evans established the company’s first research laboratory.

By 1944 Diamond was operating three plants constructed through Defense Plant Corporation funds, including the magnesium plant, a calcium hypochlorite plant, and a synthetic catalyst plant under joint lease with the M.W. Kellogg Company.

After 1945 Diamond’s postwar focus turned to a program of selling unprofitable assets, simplifying corporate structure, and modernizing, expanding, and adding plants.

Around 1947 the government lifted price controls imposed during the war, and Evans, appointed company president in 1947, directed Diamond's first price hike in nine years, seeking to reverse a wartime downward trend in earnings.

In 1948 Diamond moved its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, Ohio, closer to its central operations in Painesville.

In 1953 Diamond Alkali began producing polyvinyl chloride, a product used in the manufacture of plastic articles, and perchlorethylene, a product used in metal cleaning and dry cleaning.

Evans became company chairman in 1954, and John A. Sargent, executive vice-president, became president.

While sales were increasing, Diamond's name recognition outside the chemical industry lagged, and in 1956 Diamond joined a number of chemical companies adopting new trademarks.

In 1967 Diamond merged with Nopco Chemical Company, a New Jersey producer of a wide range of inorganic and organic chemicals.

In 1976 he was named chief executive officer.

In 1977 Diamond announced plans to construct a $25 million catalytic cracking unit at its McKee refinery near Dumas, Texas, to meet federal regulations calling for increased production of unleaded gasoline.

While courting buyers for its chemical assets, in 1980 Diamond turned its acquisition goals toward coal.

In 1981, in a second major expansion move into coal, Diamond purchased Amherst Coal Company for $220 million and then reached an agreement with the French government to provide steam coal for power generation.

In 1982, after having spent $161 million for drilling rights in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, earnings dropped by roughly $150 million due to recessionary conditions and falling energy prices.

J.L. Jackson, former president of Diamond’s coal unit, was named corporation president in 1983.

In March 1984 Diamond agreed to spend $412 million to clean up contaminants at a New Jersey plant, where it had produced the defoliant used during the Vietnam War.

In 1985 Bricker tentatively agreed to sell Diamond for $28 a share to Occidental Petroleum Corporation, then withdrew the offer.

With Diamond retrenching, in December 1986 Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who controlled the oil firm Mesa Limited Partnership, offered $2 billion for Diamond in a securities exchange.

In April, 1987 Bricker resigned and a new company, Diamond Shamrock R&M, Inc., was spun off as an independent oil refining and marketing company to be based in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1988 the company began expanding its refinery and pipeline capacity and bolstering its retail presence.

In 1989 the company also established a development and new ventures department to identify related businesses in fields where it has expertise.

In 1990 the company’s name was changed to Diamond Shamrock, Inc.

To increase its presence in the retail gasoline market in the Southwest, Diamond purchased 661 National Convenience Stores in Texas for $260 million in 1995.

Net income was $154.8 million, up significantly from 1996, but it amounted to a loss of $35.9 million.

The newly formed Ultramar Diamond Shamrock bought Total Petroleum (North America) Ltd. in September 1997, adding three refineries, in Oklahoma, Michigan, and Colorado, and some 2,000 gas stations in the central United States to Ultramar's operations.

The company planned to record a one-time pretax charge of $130 million for the quarter ended June 30, 1998, because of the restructuring.