Something Else to Discuss (and Dear Heidi)

On Monday of this week specialty coatings manufacturer and distributor of Pittsburgh Paints, Mercury Paintannounced a price increase, one of a plethora since the beginning of the war with Iran. 

In a letter to customers, Mercury refers to the ongoing conflict and the supply chain disruptions its causing, which if not for the situation in Rochester is all I would be writing about.  Because like the news from Rochester, inflation is not going away anytime soon.  Already the disruption from this war has been cataclysmic in some realms, with one Asian manufacturer sharing that production was down 50% due to a shortage of raw materials. 

I’m not expecting anything that dramatic in North America based on what I’ve heard to date, but as we learned from Mercury, this story is changing fast.  What we know already is that prices are going up, having seen pricing actions from nearly all of the major paint makers since the #StraitsofHormuz was closed.  Though only tiny Mercury had the chutzpah to tell it like it is.

To those who have asked, I’ve estimated the rate of inflation in coatings as 8% for this quarter, with next quarter likely to also see increases, which Mercury now confirms.  Their honesty in this crisis an appreciated act of transparency in an industry not known for that, even though nobody wants to hear this news: that prices will be on the rise for the foreseeable future in the United States.  And it may be worse in our segment than the broader economy, considering paint’s dependence on raw materials made on the other side of Trump’s Blockade.

What few conversations I’ve allowed not about Sherwin’s poisonous plants, have been on this topic.  Earlier today I sent a message to an executive who is my first choice to make content with on this topic, one whose insights would inform with enough celebrity to ensure an audience.  So that this news is not shouted down by the volume of my other content, which like the price of paint is going up fast. 

And I figured Heidi wasn’t available.

Dear Heidi.

I spoke to a resident of Rochester today; they complained of harassment at the hands of Sherwin-Williams employees who live and work in that town.  They were intimidated not to take legal action against the company, so that the plant continues to operate and they can keep their jobs.  A perversion of the social contract catalyzed by Sherwin’s practice, pitting neighbor against neighbor so that Cleveland can be rich. 

But employees should not bear the burden of Sherwin’s greed, so when Rochester closes for repairs—a reality you would do better to accept—Sherwin owes it to them to maintain their pay and benefits until the plant reopens.  They more than anyone have proven fealty to your brand, and it puts your greed to good use as I know that paying them to sit on the sideline will likely get the plant repaired faster.  It’s to those employees you owe your greatest responsibility, and therefore the first you should accept it for.   

For nearly a decade Pennsylvania DEP has demanded you make Rochester compliant, each time you have said no, likely with the same insolence embedded in your most recent response.  Sherwin’s reply to authorities enforcing the law is knavery on its face, cruelty while protesting that your money hurts!  With no regard or mention of the lives which you are destroying, forcing your employees and the residents of Rochester to breathe your poisonous swill because you don’t want to spend the pittance necessary to allow them fresh air.

At-least not for another few years.