Valspar

The Valspar Corporation

Type	Public (Acquisition by Sherwin-Williams pending)
Traded as	: VAL S&P 400 Component
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

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. 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.

In 1806, Samuel Tuck established a paint dealership in Boston, Massachusetts, called "Paint and Color". 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.

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.

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.

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.