williams pending traded as nyse val industry coatings founded boston massachusetts 1806 founder samuel tuck lawson valentine henry valentine headquarters minneapolis minnesota key people gary hendrickson president ceo james muehlbauer cfo cao products paint varnish revenue us 3 249 290 000 2007 operating income us 309 570 000 2007 net income us 172 120 000 2007 total assets us 3 452 280 000 2007 total equity us 1 418 140 000 2007 number of employees 10 702 subsidiaries huarun paints plasti kote cabot stains website http valsparglobal.com footnotes references 1 2 the valspar corporation is an american international manufacturer of paint and coatings based in minneapolis minnesota u.s. with nearly 10 000 employees in 25 countries and a company history that spans over two centuries long it is the sixth largest paint and coating corporation in the world . 3 the 200 year old valspar was founded in 1806 as a paint dealership in boston massachusetts . the valspar name emerged in 1903 as a new clear varnish and became the company name in 1932 . on march 21 2016 it was announced that sherwin williams wanted to pay 9.3 billion to acquire valspar . the acquisition is pending and will likely close in early 2017 . contents 1 history 1.1 19th century beginnings 1.2 the valspar name 1.3 era of acquisitions 2 brands 3 notable employees 4 references 5 external links history edit 19th century beginnings edit in 1806 samuel tuck established a paint dealership in boston massachusetts called paint and color . 2 over the course of 50 years the dealership changed owners and names several times and was eventually acquired by augustine stimson . in 1832 lawson valentine had incorporated valentine and company as a varnish manufacturer in boston . the two businesses eventually merged under the name stimson & valentine . 4 later in 1855 otis merriam joined as a principal owner and in 1860 henry valentine lawson valentine s brother joined the company . by 1866 both stimson and merriam were retired from the group and the company was renamed back to valentine & company and lawson valentine hired charles homer brother of american artist winslow homer as a chemist for the company . homer being one of few chemists in the united states at the time was the first such specialist recruited into the american varnish industry . 4 in 1870 valentine & company relocated to new york city and acquired the minnesota linseed oil paint company . around this time the company began to develop varnishes for use on vehicles which could compete with english made varnishes . henry valentine succeeded his brother as president in 1882 taking over a company with operations in boston chicago new york city and on the west coast of the united states . later their operations expanded to pennsylvania and paris . 4 the valspar name edit valspar was the first ever clear varnish and was developed by l. valentine pulsifer lawson valentine s grandson . pulsifer had joined the company in 1903 after earning a degree in chemistry from harvard university . after three years of experimentation he created the clear varnish which went into production by 1905 . the valspar varnish was the company s main product for the next thirty some years . the advertising tagline the varnish that won t turn white made valspar a household name . famous uses of valspar by robert peary in his 1909 expedition the united states military in world war i and charles lindbergh s 1927 flight helped boost its fame . 4 in 1932 the valspar corporation was formed with valentine & company retained as a subsidiary . in 1960 valspar merged with ralph baudhuin s rockcote which gave them more manufacturing in the midwestern united states and a new headquarters in ardmore pennsylvania . under the leadership of ralph and f. j. baudhuin valspar averaged almost two acquisitions per year through the 1960s . in june 1970 valspar merged with minnesota paints and relocated to minneapolis minnesota and its former president c. angus wurtele became chairman of valspar in 1973 . the influx of cash from this latest acquisition boosted valspar s acquisition power and by the end of the decade their annual revenue had increased by 74 million . 4 era of acquisitions edit prior to the 1980s valspar s primary focus had been on consumer business but in 1984 they acquired mobil s coatings business for 100 million . this effectively doubled valspar s business ; their revenue was almost equal to mobil s coatings division . furthermore as the division represented less than 0.5 % of mobil s total business at the time they were willing to sell it off for a low price . valspar completed integration of mobil s operations by 1986 . throughout the 1980s and early 1990s valspar continued to acquire paint and coatings companies and continued growing . enterprise paint companies in 1987 the mccloskey corporation in 1989 and hi tek polymers and portions of cook paint and varnish company in 1991 . in 1993 valspar announced that it would acquire cargill s resin products division but the federal trade commission tried to block it as valspar would have too large a share of the resin market in the midwestern united states . valspar went ahead with the deal anyway but divided the business between two companies mcwhorter technologies and engineered polymer solutions . richard rompala formerly of ppg industries became president in 1994 ceo in 1995 and chairman in 1998 . he pushed the then primarily north american company into china hong kong brazil mexico and south africa and acquiring some companies . in 2000 valspar acquired lilly industries which required them to divest their mirror coatings business in order to conform with united states antitrust law . however due to the cooling economy and restructuring charges from fourteen plant closings in 2001 valspar s twenty six consecutive years of earnings growth was halted . 4 valspar bought samuel cabot incorporated in 2005 . 5 in march 2016 it was announced that sherwin williams wanted to pay 9.3 billion to acquire valspar . the acquisition is pending and will likely close in early 2017 brands edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message the valspar corporation sells its products under a number of separate brand names many of which have been acquired through a series of buyouts in the past 20 years . valspar plasti kote house of kolor cabot stain barn and fence de beer octoral valspar industrial mix lic devine color us chemical & plastics prospray matrix notable employees edit joseph campbell fourth comptroller general of the united states references edit the valspar corporation . google finance . retrieved 2008 11 05 . a b our history . the valspar corporation . retrieved 2008 11 05 . merrill lynch november 25 2008 a b c d e f the valspar corporation . netindustries llc . retrieved 2008 11 06 . valspar completes acquisition of samuel cabot incorporated minneapolis june 14 2005 . press release external links edit official website additional history v t e minnesota based corporations fortune 500 corporations by size unitedhealth group target best buy supervalu chs 3m u.s. bancorp medtronic general mills xcel energy ameriprise financial c. h. robinson worldwide mosaic hormel thrivent financial for lutherans ecolab st. jude medical nash finch other public companies pentair valspar patterson companies securian financial group regis polaris industries toro deluxe donaldson fastenal federated mutual insurance company mts systems corporation major non public corporations alphabetically andersen cargill carlson holiday stationstores land o lakes schwan food company securian financial group related topics list of companies based in minneapolis saint paul retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title valspar & oldid 743567920 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangepaint manufacturerscompanies established in 1806american brandscompanies based in minneapolishidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles needing additional references from october 2015all articles needing additional referencesofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aist rk e edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 06 35 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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