By: David Hood, Induron CEO
I am an outdoorsman. I fish, hunt, hike and love the land. When the Cuyahoga river caught fire in Cleveland and the air in Birmingham was yellow, something had to be done. The EPA was established and Congress, abdicating its responsibilities, gave it the authority to make law. The new laws were called regulations. Without comment on the value of these regulations, when a company is required to reformulate a product with sales in the thousands of gallons, it costs more that the same effort spread over tens of thousands of gallons. Larger companies clearly had an advantage with these regulations. The first 90% of “clean up” of the water and air was relatively easy to do. The EPA is still writing regulations trying to eliminate the next 10% of “pollution” without any regard for a cost/benefit analysis. A further advantage to larger companies. Continue reading Consolidation in the Coatings Industry: Where Does This Leave Induron? (Part 2)
Where did all my peers go? When I joined the coatings industry in 1969, there were more than 1,100 U.S. paint manufacturers. Industry meetings were big, and I met and got to know a lot of guys and a few women who owned and operated paint companies not too different from Induron. They were all over the U.S. and Canada. Over time, most of their companies were sold to larger companies (the lucky or smart ones), went bankrupt or just dissolved. My guess is that there are no more than 100 coatings manufacturers left in North America large enough to be a factor in any market.