Maybe Start Off With a Joke?

Last week was a bad one for paint geeks who were forced to watch their ranks diminish by nearly 400 after layoffs at Pittsburgh, Rust-Oleum, Ace Hardware and Chemours—a leading producer of TiO2.  That bloodbath leaving Dan Calkins’ opportunism as the week’s only good news. 

Which was only good for independent paint retailers.

Combined with layoffs at Pittsburgh, Behr, Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore during the second half of last year and more than 1,000 of us have lost our jobs in paint of late, included me after a project scheduled to begin Q1 was cancelled due to an abrupt change in the outlook for our industry.  More time to do yoga for those semi-retired, though most others impacted have not been so cavalier with many impacted sharing concerns for their prospects in an industry undeniably contracting.

And so since so many of you asked…….

Sources at Benjamin Moore tell me not to expect any more layoffs and the cuts at Ace Hardware also seem one-off.  But among the remaining paint manufacturers I cover I am expecting more layoffs, in both the near and long terms as forecasts for soft demand become our quarterly results. 

In the near term I’m expecting more cuts at Pittsburgh where CEO Brian Carson has few options for his most vexing concerns, including hundreds of unprofitable retail locations he has no buyer for.  And with the industry contracting, he knows he won’t find one.  That leaves little choice but to close those stores, or invest the millions it would take to turn them around. An absurdity I won’t waste any ink considering here. 

Next will come any manufacturing and distribution which supported those locations, plus any other efficiency Pittsburgh can divine while reevaluating their footprint.  Cuts I’m expecting even if Pittsburgh’s owner American Industrial Partners decides to keep the remaining retail stores, dealer network and home center customers, which I don’t see no evidence they intend to do.

And if Sherwin-Williams CEO Heidi Petz can fire people right before Christmas she can do it any other time of year, though I suspect she’ll sheathe her blade until after her National Sales Meeting in Orlando later this month.  Because I doubt that even Petz would be so daft as to make further cuts before she has to address that to address that room. Though she surprised me at Christmas, so you never can tell.

But Heidi already has enough to cover in her keynote address, like explaining why she cut her employee’s 401(k) match during an era of record profits. And why she has not addressed the hundreds of credible accusations of wage theft made against her, many by employees who will be listening to her speak—or at least will be sitting there while she does. So Petz may want to keep it short, knowing that no matter what she says, they don’t want to hear it. 

And what could she say which wouldn’t seem like farce to a room filled with people more victim than co-worker?  That “we’re all in this together,” tasting bile as she moves that lie across her tongue.    

In addition to the wage theft claims many of in the audience accuse Petz of allowing dangerous working conditions, which OSHA agrees is a problem for Sherwin-Williams.  Many more complain of management’s indifference to those conditions which include chronic understaffing which Petz refuses to address, leaving time to negotiate the hourly rate for her personal use of Sherwin’s jet.

Where I suspect she is free to use the bathroom. 

On the subreddit for Sherwin-Williams employees some would wager that when Petz is introduced she won’t receive any applause, leaving her to walk up to the podium wondering if she should make her speech even shorter?  An eventuality Petz may want to prepare for because you wouldn’t want to riff that moment, though I’m expecting she’ll receive at least polite applause from the executives in the front.

And if they’re the only ones clapping, she may want to open with a joke.