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SHERWIN-WILLIAMS 100th ANNIVERSARY HIGHLIGHTS CLEVELAND'S HAINt INDUSTRY l e v e l an d , long regarded as the paint capital of the C world, this year celebrates the hundredth birthday of the world's largest producer of paint products, the Sherwin-Williams Co., founded by 24-year-old Henry Sherwin in 1866. Strictly speaking, in terms of gallons of paint produced. Cleveland ranks second to Chicago, but as the home of many of the well-known companies in the field and as the site of many of the basic technological developments. Cleveland can rightfully claim pre-eminenCe in the industry. Today, Sherwin-Williams, along with some 20 other local < companies--including the Glidden Company, Arco, Ferbert Schorndorfer and Excelsior Varnishemploy some 3500 Clevelanders while another 2000 are engaged in related aspects of the paint, varnish and lacquer business. Each year approximately 550 million worth of paint products are produced in the Greater Cleveland area. As long ago as 1870. Cleveland had established itself as one of the largest U. S. paint producing areas and it was here that a pioneer paint manufacturers' association, the Cleveland Paint. Varnish and Lacquer Association, was founded in 1892. The first paint and varnish plant managers' club in America; later to become the respected Society for Paint Technology, was formed in Cleveland in 1914, paving the way for a host of similar organizations which pro vided some of the first technological standards and THE CLEVELANDER 0007-SWP-000005044 N11855 codes of business ethics in the nation. Sherwin-Williams, while not the oldest paint company in America, is (he oldest in Cleveland, although it is Followed closely in age by Glidden, Founded in 1875; and Excelsior, which celebrated its seventy-fifth birthday in 1964. OF the paint companies Founded in Cleveland before 1900, few remain today. Many have disappeared entirely or have merged with other companies and their names are only memories, like the B. T. and S. P. Day Com pany and the Picher Lead Company, both of which were represented at the first meetings of the paint and varnish managers' club before World War iLiOn the other hand, new materials and processes have brought forth scores of new companies which make one or more of the many raw materials going into the product. The Cleveland Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association today lists 137 members, few of thr-i actually paint makers. Prior to the 1380* in America, there was little paint manufactured as we know it today, moving to the con sumer in handy containers ready for use. Most of the early paint companies began as dealers, selling dry colors, oil, turpentine, brushes, sandpaper and even lumber It was common in those days for the painters to prepare the varnishes and paints they used from their own private Formulas IF they purchased paint in any finished form at all, u was usually as a paste, principally white iead in nl or combinations of lead and ether chemicals. Not until 1880, {continued on next page) rtu.nr, ia* Colorful vir of an SWO Cleveland installation. ; 0007-SWF-000005045 * Hi**'* factory s*ts o-c round 1905 Tn* ealarndar says T'uvtoay. April IQ. Out no fur 'meticulous researches paid off, became the foundation for Sherwin-Williams business' when Sherwin-Williams introduced its ready-mixed exterior house paint, did a reliable ready-to-use paint become gen erally available. It was this product that became the foundation for the present business. Henry Sherwin came to Cleveland in 1859 from Vermont. He was 17 years old and his first job in Cleveland was as a package wrapper in a drygoods store. Later he found a job as a book keeper with a wholesale grocery firm and began to save his money and think about his future, fn 1866, when he had the opportunity to invest in a paint company, he had saved S2.000 and with it he joined the partnership of Truman Dunham Sl Co . Sherwin plunged into the paint busi ness with all his energy, learning every thing he could about paints and the other goods which the firm handled. His one dream was to manufacture paints. When the original partnership dissolved after three years, the business was divided at Slicrwin's suggestion. The other partners were interested in linseed oil. while Sherwin felt the paint business was the field of the future. Emerging from the partnership with the firms paint interests, he looked about for new partners to help him es tablish his dream. These lie found in Edward Porter Williams and A. T. Osborn, the latter subsequently retiring from the business. The new partnership: was organized in 1870 as SherwinWilliams & Co. The earliest ready-mixed paints which appeared on the market were poor in quality and soon gained almost uni versal disfavor with the public. "Chalk and water and let the public beware!" was a discouragingly popular saying of the times. Sherwin shunned the new paints at first, feeling they did not merit manufacture and developed a well-founded prejudice against patent or machine-made paints, as they were known then. Still, he dreamed of pro ducing a quality readyrto-use product and he experimented extensively at Sherwin-Williams' Cleveland plant be side the Cuyahoga River. His meticulous researches paid ofT. In 1880. he succeeded in developing a suitable formula, along with a mill that ground the pigments so fine that they remained in suspension in the oil that carried them, The product put on the market that year was superior to any thing then available, whether in pre pared form or to be hand-mixed. The null which he had developed was pat ented and provided the company with a distinct manufacturing advantage for years to come. Henry Sherwin was a mild-mannered man who believed firmly that the key to business success is a quality product and meticulously honest business poli cies. He lived to help celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the company, when he said, "It was always my en deavor to do everything I could to establish a good reputation by giving good measure and good quality, and to avoid every , trick that would save a penny at the expense of the other fellow." Ed Williams was more gregarious. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Western Reserve University, he Was a born sales man with a hearty laugh and he was de lighted to sell the quality product his quiet Vermont partner manufactured. Up to the time of his death in 1903. he knew every employee in the Cleveland plant: many of whom confided in him and sought his advice on their personal problems. A thirdmember of the early manage ment team was Sereno Peck Fenn. who joined the firm as a bookkeeper and was to serve for many years as vice president and treasurer. Sereno Fenn was a deeply religious man whose in terests included the Y.M.C.A. and it wak endowments from his estate that THE CLEVELANDER 007-SWP-00000504 helped establish Fenn College, now Cleveland State University. Today the company is managed by a team of Sherwin-Williams veterans headed by Chairman Arthur W. Steudel and President E. Colin Baldwin. Steu del. president from 1940 to 1900, has served Sherwin-Williams for well over half its hundred-year life, having joined the company in 1908 when Henry Sherwin was still president. Baldwin, in common with all the officers of the com pany. is a Sherwin-Williams careerist, having joined the company as a sales analyst in 1934 The company's Cleveland paint plant is the central facility m a 30-plant manu facturing complex that extends from Montreal to Buenos Aires and from the Philippines to. Spam. The company's famous cover-the-earth trademark is registered in more than 60 countries and. the slogan overprinted on the paintsplashed globe has been translated into languages ranging from Arabic to Viet namese. Sherwin-Williams produces some 15.000 separate items in a line of 400 different products. These include the colors in the mk used to prim postage stamps, the paints used on homes and automobiles: and the enamels used on appliances: Many of the bills produced by the United States Bureau of Printing and Engraving are printed with inks based on a special varnish supplied by Sherwin-Williams. But the basic element of the business is paint and allied coatings and no one would deny that Messrs. Sherwin, Wil liams, Fenn and their successors have performed well. As Henry Sherwin once said in his later years, "My ambition was more to build a large and permanent business than for personal financial gain. I have realized more of both than I expected." Genesis f a:: Trademark The Sherwin-Williams Cover-theEarth trademark has itself covered the earth during the fifty years it has been in use. It has penetrated to virtually every inhabited corner of the earth and its message has been translated into every major language used by men. Prior to 1905 the company's trade mark was a chameleon curled around the edge of an artist's palette: It was designed by Henry Sherwin himself and was widely displayed in the early years of the company. According to George B. Heckel, paint industry historian, the company at one lime imported a pair of chameleons from I ndia at consider able expense and used them in window displays in their various stores. One of them died after only a short time, but ilcckel once saw the survivor on display in the Cleveland office and later declared: "if the company's busi ness had moved us deliberately as that little reptile, I should not now be writing about it." The Cover-the-Eurlli idea came from George W. Ford, the advertising man ager, but: Henry Sherwin was hesitant. Since the firm had little foreign business at the time, lie Telt the slogan might not be entirely true. However, instant support came from vigorous Walter H. Cotnngham, at that time general man ager and later president, who argued, "Let's adopt the trademark and make it come true!" They did just that. rcixuoi, i** 7 0007-SWP-000005047 A Clfevefland; Company, World-Wide In 'Scope An mpt* of G>*ddn e*i#*rc * a now (ctrocoatmi eroctts. o*** on*tratd at Gi<da*n't Elmwood Avanua Aaaaarcn Cantor. hicn utiiizoa oloetrolytie action to aooiy uniform and unOrottan oretaci>vo coating* to matat surtacos. Ttw Cpntral Region plant, at Madi son Ava. and Sanaa Rd.. araa tha' firat at. Gliddan'a coatings and raama plants in tha Unitsd Stataa. h e Gl id d e n Co ., like the cily of Cleveland itself, is Tknown for its diversification, a characteristic that im parts strength and stability to the company as it also does to the community. Today, a major factor in three prin cipal business fields--coatings, foods, and chemicals, Glidden is truly a home-grown industry. The firm was founded here in 1917 and has. in the intervening years, grown to be an organization employing more than 8500 persons in 40 plants, with licensees and associated com panies around the world. But it remains a Cleveland company with the bulk of production, marketing, and other policies guided from Glidden's corporate offices on two floors of the Union Commerce Building. It was no coincidence that this multi-faceted corpora tion grew up in one of America's most industrially diver sified cities: "The talents and skills of Clevelanders, as well as proximity of markets for Glidden's varied prod ucts. are indeed important factors in the company's development.'* Dwight P. Joyce, company board chair man and chief executive ollicer, points out. The present Glidden Co. began as a small two-plant operation 49 years ago--one in Cleveland, located on Madison Ave:. and the other in Toronto when the late Adrian Joyce and a few associates acquired the little Glidden Varnish Co., which was founded in 1865. In 1917, the Glidden Varnish Co. had annual sales of approximately 52 million. Today. Glidden ranks among the country's most successful industrial organizations, with sales of nearly S304 million in the fiscal year ended last August 31. By 1920. the company's two-plunt operation had in creased to eleven paint plants throughout the country. These formed the basis for the first of Glidden's three principal operating groups--the Coatings and Resins Group, originally called the paint division. From its Cleveland base, Glidden added, among others, linseed oil facilities, zinc and barytes mines, and acquired a new patent for making pure white lead pigment.. In 1920, as a means of diversification. Glidden acquired a plant in Chicago, which was put to use producing mar garine and salad oils. In 1929. Glidden acquired the E. R. Durkee Co. and consolidated all of the company's food operations under the trade name, "Durkee's Famous 'Foods." Today, Durkee's spices, condiments, shorten ings. and convenience foods are marketed through the Grocery Products, Industrial and Food Service divisions not only in Cleveland, but around the world by the Durkee Foods Group, another of Glidden's operating groups. Glidden's third major operating unit is the Chemicals Group, which in recent years has become an increasingly THE CLCVCLAMDCR 0007-SWP-000005048 N11855.01 important factor in the nation's chemical industry. Glidden produces for its own use and for numerous customers high quality titanium dioxide white pigment and is a leader in the highly {specialized field of metal powders, porcelain enamel; ceramic frits, and fine terpene chemicals--which are among the; major products of the Chemicals Group, whose operations are centered in Baltimore. In keeping with Glidden's historic emphasis on research! and new product development, the firm supports numerous laboratories in many of its operations, whose responsibilities include keeping Glidden abreast or ahead of competition in several fields;: At 12430 Elmwood Ave., for example, Glidden's Coatings and Resins Group maintains one of the coatmgs (industry's most modern research laboratories. As the (headquarters for all basic resin and trade sales research, a number of "firsts" in the coatings industry have been (pioneered there. The Center,: staffed by 140 highly trained scientists and technicians;(features, amongmany research facilities, one of the largest installations for the demonstration of electro-coating, a process in which a coating is applied to metal through electrolytic; action. Each year, hundreds of visitor]: and specialists (interested tn the development of the coatings industry go through Glidden s Research Center and call on its ifacilities for answers to specific coatings needs. (Glidden's principal local production facility is the Central Region plant, located at 1 lOOf Madison Ave. at Berea Rd. This plant, which employs more than 500 people, is among the larger coatings plants in the United States; and can produce virtually any coating presently madeiin the industry. Training the people who staff this plant as well as others in the Glidden organization is a continuing process conducted through the company's manpower development program. One such training and development school, staffed by three full-time specialists, is conducted at the Madison Ave. plant for training management, sales, and technical personnel in the Coatings and Resins Group. Located on West IIOth St. off Berea Rd. is Glidden's Color Studio, symbol of the company's stature in the coatings industry. Designer of the Master Palette System by which: a customer can select from several thousand different scientifically blended shades at Glidden retail paint dealers, the Color Studio serves as a decorating consultant for schools; institutions, and industry--as well us for individual homes. Although Glidden has expanded its paint operations throughout the world, much ofthis growth has and will continucto take place in Cleveland and northern Ohio, The 1964 acquisition of the Macco Chemical Company in Wickliffe and us Gates Engineering Division of Wilmington, ; Del., has given Glidden a line of adhesives; sealants; land roofing coatings. The construction of a new plant at nearby Huron will be completed in March, The Huron plant will be the first completely new resin plant TheiGlidden Co. has ever built in this country, The Glidden story, then, is one that parallels the story of Cleveland during the past half-century. It is the story of planning and enterprise, of growth und diversification and of adaptation to the changing needs: of society. It is a typical Cleveland story, fashioned by this typical Cleveland company whose future as its founding is an important part of the city's economy. FEaauaav. isc 0007-SWP-000005049 'Changes in paint industry have been quiet but colorful^revdlution N11855.02 as s iv e changes adding up to a quiet but colorful M revolution have taken place in the paint industry in recent years. They sprang from the research labora tories and spread rapidly to the manufacturing areas. They have brought a host of new and highly useful prod ucts and have altered manufacturing techniques radically. Arthur B. Holton, technical director for the Sherwin- Williams Co., outlined one dimension of the chunges when he recently pointed out: "Forty percent of the paint products we make today did not exist as recently as ten years ago. The other sixty percent have undergone such modernization they are almost unrecognizable as 'old line' products." Another dimension of the changes is summed up by John S. Prescott, executive vice president and director of manufacturing for the Cleveland-based company; He finishing production ranging from furniture to paneling said: `improved technology has literally re-made manut and house siding. facturmg processes in our industry. Quality control is "These are but two of many developments calling for much more stringent. Control of color, always a critical totally new thinking about paint," factor, has become a precise science. We have to produce Such developments have also prompted new thinking greater quantities of paint in less time. And we have about how to make paint; according to Prescott. learned to do this by, developing equipment and tech "That new thinking is probably most evident in what niques most people thought were completely impractical we call chemical coatings." the paint executive said. only a decade ago." "These are the finishes that are applied to the products Holton and Prescott are particularly well-equipped to of industry^everything from garden tools to guided measure the scope of the revolution. Both are members missiles. With more sophisticated application procedures, of families ,in which paint is a tradition. Both have spent paints frequently have to be tailor-made for faster pro their business careers with Sherwin-Williams. duction schedules and still possess all the virtues the The technical'director early learned about paint from ultimate consumer demands. hts father, the late >E. C. Holton, who headed research for ``But the changes in our manufacturing methods are the company from 1899 to 1934. Following graduation reflected in other paints, too. And they reach back to from the1 University of Illinois, the younger Holton did touch raw material suppliers who now have to furnish further study ofchemistry at the U niversity of Pittsburgh. such things as pigments of finer grind so they can be He then taught at the latter school beforejoining Sherwin- readily dispersed in high speed equipment. Williams as a paint formulator. He subsequently served "Incidentally, since we manufacture many of our own in a variety of research and development positions and raw materials we have had to bring those production was named technical director in 1946. operations up to the new standards dictated by the new Prescott's heritage of paint may be said to extend even paintmakingi techniques: " farther back. He is a grandson of Henry Alden Sherwin, To keep? pace with the changes, Prescott has been founder of the company. From Williams College he directing a program of modernization at all of the com came directly to Sherwin-Williams and almost imme pany's manufacturing installations. The work at the diately became involved! in manufacturing. At one time Cleveland paint plant has been underway for some time he was superintendent of the Cleveland paint and varnish and will reach a high point in the near future when ap plant, served as assistant to the executive vice president proximately siSSIKkOOO will be invested in new resin pro of the company's Canadian operations and was general duction facilities there. Two completely new plants now superintendent of plant and equipment. He was named a on the drawing boards, one at Atlanta, the other near vice president and director of manufacturing in 1961, Greensboro, N. C., will, of course, incorporate the new and lus election * executive vice president came last year. technology from the ground up. Obviously,1 Holton and Preacott have seen many in Although Holton and Prescott "wouldn't be surprised novations in the paint industry. Yet, they are agreed that at anything" m the future, they fully expect a continua the last ten .yean have been packed with more progress tion of the trend toward greater complexity of coatings. than any comparable .period liefore. "We are going to have to build-in many more specified "As an example.' thbk at the whole concept of pre characteristics in tomorrow's paints;" Prescott said. finishing, that .is, factory 'application of finishes," Holton "From what we already know about the application of observes "It has come of age in the decade: Now we instrumentation tor our manufacturing needs, we will have paints being applied to strip metals before the metal surely bel able to use these techniques for more extensive is formed into the end product. The' flat strip is coated in-process testing and narrow the tolerances in quality at speeds up to .150-feet-per-mmute, and the paint has to and color control. withstand the stresses of going through forming dies and "I expect to see many more tailor-made polymers roll and brake 'formers. used in the future. And as we learn more about what "In addition, we have been called upon to produce makes for paint degradation on exposure, we will surely finishes for wood surfaces that are also adapted to pre- find further ways to slow that process." FtanuABif, itcc 0007-SWP-000005051