W. R. Grace & Co history

Poor health forced William to retire from the Peruvian business in 1865.

Grace Line began service in 1882, with ports of call between Peru and New York.

In 1887, a group of foreign bondholders in the Peruvian government, mostly British, called on Grace Brothers & Co. to attempt a settlement of the debt.

Regular steamship service was established in 1893, with a subsidiary called the New York & Pacific Steamship Co., that operated under the British flag.

Although the Spanish occasionally used Boca Raton’s harbour, the first settlers arrived in the area about 1895, around the same time as the Florida East Coast Railway.

The company was incorporated in the United States as W.R. Grace & Co. in 1899.

In 1904, Michael P. Grace became president after the death of William Grace.

Ships built outside the United States prior to 1905 were banned from US registry.

US-flag service began in 1912 with the Atlantic and Pacific Steamship Company.

In 1914, it created Grace National Bank.

In 1916, Grace acquired a controlling interest in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.

In 1923, the US Shipping board decided to place the five ships up for bid and Dollar Shipping Company won the bid.

In 1929, the year Joseph became chairman of the board, W.R. Grace and Pan American Airways together established the first international air service down the west coast of South America, Pan American Grace Airways otherwise known as Panagra.

1945: J. Peter Grace, grandson of William, becomes president of W.R. Grace & Co.

The book, commissioned by William Grace's son Joseph, and originally scheduled for publication by Viking Press in 1948, was suppressed by the Grace company, for reasons that remain unclear.

Later in the year, when the company was about to make a public stock offering to raise capital for further expansion, it received an offer from Peter's old friend Friedrich Karl Flick, who during the 1950's had worked for Grace National Bank for three years.

In 1953, the company became a public company via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1954, Grace acquired Davison Chemical Company and Dewey & Almy Chemical Company, establishing the basis for the current product lines.

Arthur Vining Davis, an aluminum magnate, purchased the property in 1956.

1960: Grace introduces Cryovac Type L shrinkwrap for meat and poultry.

1963: Grace introduces pellet silica gel for use as a packaging desicant.

1964: Grace Davison introduces XZ-15, a catalyst that increases gasoline efficiency.

In August 1965, he sold Grace National Bank to what is now Marine Midland Bank.

In 1966, the company bought a 53% controlling stake in Miller Brewing for $36 million from Lorraine Mulberger, the granddaughter of Frederick Miller, who sold the stake for religious reasons.

And in 1967 Peter sold the company's 50 percent interest in Pan American Grace Airways to Braniff Airways for $15 million.

1968: Grace introduces Cryovac Market-Ready packaging for beef and Monokote spray-on fireproofing.

The company sold the Miller stake in 1969 to Philip Morris for $130 million, after first cancelling an agreed-upon sale to PepsiCo for $120 million.

In 1970, Grace Line was sold to Prudential Lines for $44.5 million, with the merged company renamed Prudential Grace Line.

Consequently it was not surprising that in 1972, company executives produced a 700-page memo, establishing 20 criteria for acquiring a new business.

In 1974, the Peruvian government nationalized properties in Peru owned by the company.

By 1976, the company was ready to continue its move into consumer goods and services.

1978: Grace introduces Ice & Water Shield for roofing.

In 1979, after years of watching the company's stock trading at low earnings multiples, management proposed splitting up the company into seven or eight separate companies which would command higher stock prices.

However, the company suffered with falling energy prices in 1981.

Moreover, in 1982, the combination of a poor natural resources profit and a further decline in the fertilizer business led to a 50 percent decrease in the company's profitability.

As a result, Grace petroleum was put up for sale in 1984.

1985: Grace acquires Chomerics, Inc., a packaging and coating manufacturer.

In 1987, Grace built a can sealant plant in Minhing, China, near Shanghai, thereby became the first wholly foreign-owned, private company to do business in The People's Republic of China.

The days of Grace buying companies that are not strategic are gone." First announced in 1991, this plan was to cut back Grace's operations to two lines of business, specialty chemicals and health care, and called for a divestment of 25 percent of the company's assets.

1992: First asbestos-related lawsuit is filed against W.R. Grace.

Although Grace topped $6 billion a year in sales in 1993, its profit on those sales was only $26 million, and the sprawling company was so heavily diversified that it owned over 100 subsidiaries.

Other actions included a buyback of 10 million shares of common stock, amounting to approximately 10 percent of the total, as well as a new two-year corporate reorganization, inaugurated late in 1995.

1996: Grace divests extensively, streamlining the company to six core businesses.

Those businesses were streamlined also; for instance, in June 1997, Grace set out to restructure its packaging business on a global basis, saving an estimated $25 million a year.

In 1998 the company sold its packaging business to the Sealed Air Corporation and thenceforth concentrated on its specialty-chemicals business.

Also in 1999, Grace cut 370 jobs, or approximately 8 percent of its workforce, as part of a restructuring designed to streamline the company still further.

In 2000, Grace agreed to pay the major portion of a $15.5 million settlement against book distributor and former subsidiary Baker & Taylor.

Fred Festa is named President and Chief Operating Officer of W. R. Grace & Co. in November 2003.

Fred Festa becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors in January 2008.

In July 2016, the company acquired a catalysts business from BASF.