Sherwin-Williams

Integrity assured

Celebrating its 150th anniversary, Sherwin-Williams is a globally recognised supplier of trusted and high quality paints

Sherwin-Williams was founded in 1866 in Cleveland, Ohio and has a long history of providing coatings for iconic structures and installations around the world. The company remains based in Cleveland to this day and presently employees some 47,000 members of staff globally with regional HQs in the UK (Manchester), China and Brazil. Throughout the business, Sherwin-Williams is entirely focused on providing its clients with the highest levels of service and market-leading quality coatings. “We are a Coatings Company and only sell paint. The company’s sales in 2015 were $11.3 billion and our products can be found everywhere – we make the White House white, and the Hollywood sign shine,” reveals Senior Director, Marketing & Business Development, Dave Wright. “We cover iconic structures like Tower Bridge and the Golden Gate bridge and we have ended the old adage about the ‘never-ending job’ by painting the Forth Rail bridge in a new technology that lasts for 25 years. Our paint is found on The Shard and the Burj Khalifa and we coat the desks of the French President, the Irish Taoiseach and President Putin.”

Today the company operates more than 4000 Sherwin-Williams paint stores in the Americas, and opens a new store every three days. These stores serve high-end DIY consumers as well as painting & decorating contractors. In Europe, the company is also well known for its Ronseal brand in the UK and its Altax range in Poland. The company’s current success is built on a century and a half in operation and the knowledge and dedication of its staff. During 2016 Sherwin-Williams celebrates its 150th year in operation with festivities set to take place at its locations around the world. “We are extremely proud of our heritage and have celebrated throughout this year with our employees and customers,” says Wright. “There have been literally hundreds of local celebrations, focused on charity work in our communities, plus major events in Shanghai, Manchester and Orlando, where we filled a basketball arena with team members from across the continent.”

Sherwin-Williams has a history of innovation including the development of the world’s first ready-mixed paint, the first resealable paint can, the first aerosol spray paint and it invented the paint roller. Further to its architectural and decorative paints, the company has a long heritage in coatings for industrial applications, which it today divides into three divisions comprised of protective and marine; automotive and aerospace; and product finishes. Indeed during 2016 Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings EMEA was recognised through the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in its innovation category for its Dura-PlateTM 301W.

“This breakthrough product has unique surface, humidity and low temperature tolerant properties designed to protect assets in the harshest of environments, offering a longer painting calendar, increased efficiencies and reduced overall project costs. This new product is helping to change the face of the energy and infrastructure markets in Europe,” Wright explains. “The cost of downtime on maintenance has long been an issue in many offshore European locations, with shortened seasons for coating depending on how low temperatures have fallen in winter. By working with key customers, the technical team developed a cold curing expansion of the surface and humidity tolerant epoxy technology, keeping the same broader field of applications covering its use in immersion as well as atmospheric service conditions in offshore, marine, industrial and infrastructure applications. Dura-Plate 301W offers cold curing down to 0ºC and extended re-coatability of up to six months, two important extensions of this technology reach.”

As the company grows, Sherwin-Williams will continue to develop new products while seeking further opportunities to expand its product range and industry presence. Last month it opened a new state-of-the-art powder coatings plant in Sady, Poland and during March the company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Valspar under which Sherwin-Williams will acquire Valspar for $113 per share in an all cash transaction. “Sherwin-Williams and Valspar have highly complementary paints and coatings offerings and this combination enhances Sherwin-Williams’ position as a premier global paints and coatings provider,” Wright says. “The transaction results in an exceptional, diversified array of strong brands and technologies, accelerates Sherwin-Williams’ growth strategy by further expanding its global platform in Asia-Pacific and EMEA, and also adds new capabilities in the packaging and coil coating segments.”

With 150 years of industry experience behind it, Sherwin-Williams has proven to be a trusted and reliable player in coating solutions within many industries across the world. Over the coming years the same principles of integrity and quality that have allowed the business to reach its current enviable position, will drive the company as it continues to work with both long-standing and brand new clients. “We remain focused on our customers, delivering innovative coatings solutions that improve the beauty and performance of the products they coat, while providing operational and environmental benefits as well. In the medium term we expect to continue to expand, both organically and through targeted acquisitions, our technical capabilities, product lines and global footprint, to establish new growth platforms,” Wright concludes. The British Coatings Federation use a phrase; ‘the coatings industry is the most looked at, but most over-looked industry.’ We want to continue to supply some of the world’s top companies with coatings that protect their products, enhance them, show off their beauty and ultimately help to sell more of them. I am proud every day when I see the myriad of items around us that are coated in our paint.”

Sherwin-Williams

Products: Market leading paints and coatings