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A
Bright Shinning Star
Basic Materials
Chemical Manufacturing
NYSE: RPM
RPM, Inc.
Frank C. Sullivan
President and
Chief Operating Officer
Interview Conducted By:
Diane Reynolds, Co Publisher
CEOCFOinterviews.com
August 7, 2002
Company Profile:
Mr. Frank C.
Sullivan: "RPM was founded by my grandfather, also Frank Sullivan in 1947 and
after a career in the industrial maintenance coatings business as Republic Powdered
Metals. He founded the business in his
garage, named it Republic Powdered Metals, hoping that people might mistake it for a
larger neighbor, Republic Steel, a company called Republic Powdered Metals. The first product line was a product called
Alumanation. It was an asphalt-based aluminum
pigmented roofing coating and maintenance coating and that really carried the business for
many years. In 1963 we first went public,
basically on an intrastate basis within the state of Ohio.
We had our initial public offering on a national basis in 1969. In August of 1971, my grandfather passed away very
suddenly leaving an $11 million dollar business, that was half owned by the Sullivan
family and half owned by the public, to my then 34-year old father, Tom, who has really
been the leader of this business from our growth over the past 30 years to approximately
$2 billion dollars in annual revenues. RPM,
Inc. was formed in 1972 as a holding company and about half of our growth since that time
has been through the acquisition of other leaders in the industrial or consumer specialty
coatings or sealant areas. Today, RPM is
approximately $2 billion dollars in revenues, about half of that is in high performance
industrial coating for concrete or structural steel and construction chemical products. Our businesses are typically the leading brand in
large global markets, like our Carboline business, which is the most specified high
performance coating for structural steel and corrosion control globally, our Stonhard
business, which is the number one producer globally in industrial polymers for floors or
concrete. The other half of RPM is basically
a North American consumer business. Our
leading brands include Rustoleum, DAP caulks and sealants, Zinsser primers and specialty
coatings, and Bondo automotive repair materials, just to name a few. That is RPM today."
Interview
Highlights:
-
Handed down from generation to
generation
-
Majority of growth
-
Boom in new construction
-
New issues in resale
-
Keeping up with demand
-
New products
-
Acquisitions
-
Solutions
-
50
years and still counting
and the next steps
-
Addressing the investment community
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