That's Why It's a Virtue

Either too old or too high to recall someone’s name when needed last week, I took to scrolling my list of subscribers confident I would recognize it when it scrolled by, though it turns out that confidence was misplaced.  Still, the time spent creeping all your reading habits was not wasted, as it allowed me to identify my longest tenured subscriber.      

The AOL email address was my first clue that they’ve been following for a while, until I found the evidence that they've been following even longer!  

Sherwin-Williams announced that it will be taking over the lease of the former True Value manufacturing facility in Cary, Illinois, a remnant asset of that bankruptcy which Do it Best ended up in possession of.  Now two years later, Sherwin-Williams takes that lease over and Do it Best keeps the brands, a neat trick by DiB CEO Dan Starr who paid little for those assets and who is now free of the liabilities. 

The plant was known for its toll manufacturing, making paint for other manufacturers in an effort to keep both supply chains efficient.  The practice is common within our industry, with Benjamin Moore being a notable exception.  A fact my former boss, CEO Dan Calkins, didn’t pay me to write here.  But if he’s still reading I know he’s glad I did, because I remember the offense he took the one time I mentioned tolling in his presence. 

The Cary plant was a major supplier to Sherwin-Williams, with truckloads of their paint laid out for shipping on the day of my last tour more than five years ago during an engagement with True Value, which I suspect will no longer be enforcing the NDA leaving me free to drop that mention here.  Filling the dock’s capacity that day were the C and D movers of Sherwin’s lines, with volumes too low to tie up a production line yet quantities so vast they awed me, as a visual representation of Sherwin’s scale. 

But still this was not the sort of news I was expecting to gain much attention, which shows what I know. 

On that plant’s customer list are many of the other paint manufacturers, which like Sherwin use Cary to toll for their brands.  Some of those though will be reluctant to buy from Sherwin, with several I heard from already contemplating a change.  Which is likely Sherwin’s plan, so that plant’s capacity can be added to its already mammoth operations.

But if Sherwin’s plan is to maintain those customers, then it might need another plan as the anti-Sherwin sentiment is heavy among that crowd.  Many of whom, like the plant’s original owner True Value, ply their trade in the independent channel.  Where anti-Sherwin animus is high enough to have spawned me, making an amicable separation seem most likely. 

But rumor has it that getting back into the channel may be on Sherwin’s mind, a folly greater than anything Irick could have conjured, though I’m aware Sherwin has made entreaties to that effect.  A wasted effort considering the size and rabidity of the channel’s anti-Sherwin caucus, which as a dealer, I was not a member of stocking Purdy, Cabot’s and Pratt & Lambert among other products from Sherwin’s Consumer Brands Group (CBG).  Often using them as leverage against Benjamin Moore and as an arrow in my quiver in my fight to get Moore to treat its dealers more fairly—which at that time the company was not known for doing. 

THE original advocacy of these pages, which received a mention last week when a resident of Rochester asked what’s needed to make change?  Which of course requires persistence, though it requires on thing more.     

The New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals, which they have not won since 1973, despite great efforts in 1994 and 1999. 

In those years my uncle had season tickets to the Knicks, getting me into several regular season games that championship year, in an era before pictures to prove it so you’ll have to take my word.  Ten years old, it would still be three years before I placed my first bet with a middle school friend running numbers for his dad.  Perhaps my first appreciation for a family business.

Among the stars in 1973 was Walt “Clyde” Frazier, a point guard who spent 13 years in the NBA and the rest of his life as an icon of the New York sports galaxy, in the realm of Jeter and Namath.  From the hardcourt to the booth for 40 years Frazier has been the voice of the Knicks, known for his insightful in-game analysis and endearing personality.

More than that Clyde is known for an enfolding politeness, which I experienced one night more than ten years ago.  When happenstance allowed an exhilarating 15-minute reminiscing of that ’73 team, standing in the shadow of the Garden with the man who ran its point.   Always, the city’s best dressed.     

Let’s Go Knicks!