Sherwin Williams

BACK-GROUND INFORMATION:

Sherwin-Williams was founded in 1866, by Henry Sherwin and was joined 4 years later by Edward Williams. Sherwin Williams makes paints and coatings worldwide and has developed many new pigments, lacquers, and enamels. Today the company produces 130,000 products and has over $5 billion in sales. Sherwin-Williams operates over 2300 stores and has thousands of external customers, some of which include Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sears as well as automotive and tire stores. The company also makes automotive finishes to wood sealers and paint brushes to rollers. They employee over 25,000 employees world wide and are the number 2 paint supplier in the world and number 1 in the United States.

Some of the major acquisitions include Pratt & Lambert, which entered Sherwin Williams into the Aerospace-coatings market. Thompson Minwax Holding Corp., which brought stains and varnishes into Sherwin-Williams wide array of products. Through other acquisitions they have acquired the brands of Dutch Boy, KYRLON, Formby’, and Red devil.

PRODUCTS:

When most people think of Sherwin Williams they think of paint. From the big blue globe with the paint running down stating “cover the earth.” Sherwin-Williams has been synonymous with paint. The over 2,300 hundred stores also sell wallpaper, brushes, rollers, carpet, tape, caulk, and most any other item that is needed for any painting project. Sherwin-Williams is also tries to be the leader in innovation and for coming up with better and new products. For example the EZ pour can (which is a new form of paint can made from plastic that reseal with a screw on lid), and the KRYLON Fusion (which is spray paint made for adhering to plastic). Most people do not know is that although Sherwin-Williams sales paint they also make a lot of other brand names that people are aware of just by the name.

KRYLON is a Sherwin-Williams product its ads on the television back in the 70’s With no runs, no drips, no errors is famous and is now making its way back into the market. Sherwin-Williams is also responsible for Dutch Boy, which is sold at all Sears stores. Minwax and Thompson’s Water Seal were recently acquired by Sherwin-Williams in 1996. All these products are made by Sherwin Williams and are brand recognizable with their name only.

Sherwin-Williams has always sold just the right products for its stores. Never getting to involved in thing it is not good at, however trying new things when needed. Like for example aerospace products and automotive finishes.

PLACE:

According to the Sherwin-Williams web site in the automotive section: “Sherwin-Williams is committed to expanding brand recognition worldwide.” Sherwin-Williams is found in most all of South America and some of the Asia Markets and Europe. This is mainly through distributing our product or licensees with other countries. Sherwin-Williams does however have some subsidiaries that operate over seas.

That all said and done, Sherwin-Williams does over 60% of its sales through its own stores. Selling anything from paint to wallpaper and brushes to carpet. In the United States, Sherwin-Williams does not sell its own paint from anywhere but its own stores. The rest of the 40% makes up the private label business. This is where the paint plant of Sherwin-Williams will make paint for lets say Wal-Mart. This is done through the brand name ColorPlace. This paint is made just for Wal-Mart and they do all the marketing for their product. The difference is that it does not have that it is ‘made by Sherwin-Williams’, just that it was packaged for Wal-Mart. They also do this for Kmart, Ace Hardware, or just about any company like these.

PROMOTION:

Sherwin-Williams relies heavily on the name brand recognition: KRYLON, Dutch Boy and so on. However the Sherwin-Williams stores relies on the quality and service of each store. When people think