PPG Industries

In 1883 entrepreneur John B. Ford and railroad superintendent John Pitcairn founded the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, with its first plant at Creighton, about twenty miles up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. Pitcairn’s oil and gas holdings supplied cheap natural gas for the furnaces, and the plant began operating in 1883.⁠[1]

The company moved its headquarters from Creighton to Pittsburgh in 1895. Ford left in 1896, leaving Pitcairn in control.⁠[2]

Around the turn of the century Pitcairn built the soda ash maker Columbia Chemical Company at Barberton, Ohio, a forerunner of PPG’s chemicals business. In 1900 PPG acquired Milwaukee-based Patton Paint Company, the foundation of its coatings operations.⁠[3]

Pitcairn died in 1916. In 1924 PPG switched to the ribbon method for plate glass, and in 1928 it mass-produced sheet glass using the Pittsburgh Process and developed the Creighton Process for laminating automobile windshield glass.⁠[2]

PPG opened its fiber glass business in 1952. In 1963 it became the first U.S. company to manufacture float glass.⁠[4]

In 1968 the company changed its name to PPG Industries, Inc. to reflect its size, diversification and global reach.⁠[4]

In 1999 PPG completed two major acquisitions: PRC-DeSoto International, Inc. and the bulk of ICI’s automotive refinishing and industrial coatings businesses.⁠[3]

In 2002 PPG took a $484 million after-tax charge for its share of a $2.7 billion asbestos settlement involving Pittsburgh Corning.⁠[4]

On January 28, 2013, PPG completed the separation of its commodity chemicals business and its merger with a subsidiary of Georgia Gulf Corporation. On April 1, 2013, PPG finalized the acquisition of the North American architectural coatings business of Akzo Nobel N.V.⁠[5]

On November 5, 2014, PPG finalized its acquisition of Consorcio Comex, S.A. de C.V., an architectural coatings company headquartered in Mexico City, in a deal valued at $2.3 billion. Comex sold through more than 3,700 stores in Mexico and Central America, had sales of approximately $1 billion in 2013 and about 3,900 employees.⁠[6]

On July 16, 2015, PPG announced that Michael McGarry would become president and CEO effective September 1, 2015, joining the board immediately. Charles E. Bunch, who had led PPG for the previous decade, continued as executive chairman.⁠[7]

On October 3, 2016, Vitro announced it had completed the acquisition of PPG’s entire flat glass manufacturing and glass coatings operations in the United States and Canada, including four plants, a research and development center and four distribution and fabrication facilities in Canada.⁠[8]

The same year PPG divested its European fiber glass business and its interests in two Asian fiber glass joint ventures, and paid $630 million (after tax) to fund the Pittsburgh Corning asbestos trust.⁠[9]

PPG’s final cash-and-share proposal in April 2017 valued AkzoNobel at 26.3 billion euros. AkzoNobel refused talks over concerns about employees, incompatible cultures and antitrust risks. On June 1 PPG withdrew, and McGarry said, withdrawing was “in the best interests of PPG and its shareholders.”⁠[10]

An investigation overseen by the Audit Committee found that PPG’s former Controller had directed subordinates to override internal controls, improperly shifting pre-tax expenses between quarters of 2017 and misclassifying certain gains. PPG restated its fiscal 2016 and 2017 financial statements and concluded that a material weakness in internal control existed as of December 31, 2017.⁠[11]

The SEC found that from December 2016 through April 2018 PPG kept materially inaccurate books and records, with misstatements designed to meet or approach analysts’ consensus earnings estimates. It issued a cease-and-desist order without a civil penalty, based in part on PPG’s self-reporting and substantial cooperation. PPG neither admitted nor denied the findings.⁠[12]

PPG’s cash offer of 34.00 euros per share for the Finnish paint company Tikkurila expired on June 4, 2021. On June 10, PPG announced it had completed the acquisition and controlled 97.1% of Tikkurila’s shares, with the rest to be acquired through a squeeze-out. Founded in 1862 and headquartered in Vantaa, Tikkurila had 2020 sales of about 582 million euros and about 2,400 employees.⁠[13]

Tim Knavish had served as president and CEO since January 1, 2023. On September 26, 2023, the board elected him chairman and CEO effective October 1, the date Michael McGarry retired as executive chairman.⁠[14]

In 2023 PPG marked its 140th anniversary and opened a customer and employee experience center at its global headquarters, One PPG Place, in Pittsburgh.⁠[15]

In 2024 PPG completed the sale of its silicas products business to QEMETICA, a privately held soda ash and specialty chemicals maker based in Warsaw, for approximately $310 million in pre-tax proceeds. The business had about 400 employees, accounted for 1–2% of PPG’s 2023 net sales and included precipitated silica plants in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Delfzijl, the Netherlands.⁠[16]

On December 2, 2024, PPG completed the sale of its U.S. and Canada architectural coatings business to American Industrial Partners at a transaction value of $550 million, including brands such as Glidden, Olympic, Liquid Nails, Pittsburgh Paints & Stains and Sico and 750 company-owned stores. PPG kept its architectural coatings businesses in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.⁠[17]

PPG also received Russian regulatory approval of a definitive agreement to sell its remaining Russian business, which was classified as held for sale at December 31, 2024, with a $146 million impairment charge.⁠[18]

PPG has three segments: Global Architectural Coatings, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. Net sales for fiscal 2025 were $15,875 million, up 0.2% from 2024, and net income from continuing operations attributable to PPG was $1,571 million. It had about 43,500 employees at December 31, 2025.⁠[19]

PPG’s third-quarter 2026 net sales were $4,353 million, up 7% from a year earlier, with net income from continuing operations attributable to PPG of $473 million and diluted earnings per share of $2.12. It narrowed its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $7.90 to $8.10.⁠[20]