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Writer's pictureMark Lipton

That's a Stretch!

Updated: Jul 17

In February PPG chief executive Tim Knavish announced plans to “review strategic alternatives” for the company’s $1.8 billion architectural coatings business. Knavish emoting that the timing seemed right considering PPG’s “positive momentum” in the segment.

 

Which stretches a fact further than an elastomeric caulk over a rotted windowsill!

 

Since that announcement PPG stock has dropped more than 20%, swimming against the tide of the Dow Jones Industrial Average which continues to set records.


Which I'm positive Tim– is not momentum!

 

It’s easy to blame Knavish for PPG’s woes, like all chief executives he is ultimately responsible for any actions taken on his watch

 

But PPG’s problems predate Knavish’s tenure, now just 18-months old.  Scant time to mop up the mess left by his predecessor, former PPG chief executive Michael McGarry

 

For the decade before Knavish was made it was McGarry who mishandled the Steel City’s paint maker, his tenure marred by troubled relationships with dealers, misguided initiatives and a stock price which failed to keep up with both the S & P 500 and an index representing other companies in PPG’s peer group.

 

Which technically is momentum!

 

 

In the aftermath of the Kelly-Moore affair paint maker Dunn-Edwards grew their storefront and head count more than 10% in weeks, benefitting more from Charles Gassenheimer’s lies than any other paint manufacturer. 

 

Exactly as they planned.


On my podcast this week I’m joined by Monte Lewis, chief operating officer of Dunn-Edwards Paint.  Monte was the architect of Dunn-Edwards’ strategy vis-à-vis Kelly-Moore, which he and his team had been developing since the Flacks Group acquired Kelly in October of 2022

 

More than 15-months prior to Gassenheimer’s orderly winddown!

 

You can watch THE episode on both my YouTube channel and Vlog or you can listen on my own site, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, and on Soundcloud.

 

It was the Dunn-Edwards story and Monte’s telling of it which first mused this series and now having listened to the episode several times during production it’s easy to recall why. 

 

More than just opportunists quickly responding to an event, Monte and the Dunn-Edwards team prepared for a hypothetical shutdown at Kelly-Moore more than a year prior to the shuttering and then waited for it to happen!


That exercise impressed enough to birth the series, and ensured that if Kelly-Moore did falter, Dunn-Edwards would be the first to feast on their remains.

 

Which is why they got the best bites!



 

 

 

 

 

 

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