The Beckers foundation
When the Beckers business started in Stockholm in 1865 there were no specific industrial coatings: most objects were still made by hand and craftsmen patronised Beckers to buy appropriate ready-to-use paints, instead of having to mix the ingredients themselves. Involvement in customers' specific needs has been a Beckers hallmark ever since.
An international approach to business was another hallmark of the early company. Wilhelm Becker himself was German, and he exported his Swedish paint to Finland and Russia.
Industrial coatings became more distinct products with the growth of automated
production lines in the 1920s, and Beckers supplied these markets from the
beginning. When the coil coating industry started, Beckers and companies which
it later acquired were among the first to supply.
Building a European multinational
The Group's growth since 1865 has been both organic and by acquisition.
The first step to building a multinational industrial coatings business was taken
in 1961 when Beckers acquired one third of the German company, Hermann Wulfing
Wings-Lackfabrik, in conjunction with Glidden. However, Beckers sold out to the
other partners in 1968, only to buy complete control of the company in 1976.
In 1984 the German automotive paint operations were sold, and remaining business
was merged with Schmidt & Berewinkel in Dormagen, near Düsseldorf.
In 1975 Beckers set up its own industrial coatings subsidiary in the UK, greatly
enlarging it with the acquisition of Conway Coatings, a coil coatings specialist,
in 1978. Goodlass Wall Ltd. was acquired in 1984. This company’s Liverpool roots
stretch back to the start of the Goodlass Wall paint company in 1840.
In 1979 attention turned to France with the purchase of Vernis Bichon SA and Bichon Chimie
SA. In 2001 Beckers acquired Blancomme, a leading supplier of liquid and powder
coatings.
In Italy Beckers acquired Tego Vernici S.p.A. in 1987, a company that
had focused exclusively on coil coatings since its inception in 1972, and had
become the clear market leader. With the entry of Beckers the company became
Tego Becker S.r.l. and expanded its activities to include special coatings.
In Poland, Becker Industrial Coatings has set up a company, Becker Powloki Przemyslowe Sp. z o.o. based
in Warsaw.
Global expansion
Major expansion outside Europe started in the 1990s, starting with Asia.
In China, business developed strongly in the mid-1990s, leading to the formation
of a dynamic joint venture in 1997. Beckers bought the whole of this in 2001.
In 2002 a new factory was opened in Shanghai, followed by another factory in
2003 in Guangzhou.
In Malaysia, after operating through a licence agreement with
PAR for some 10 years, Becker Industrial Coatings invested in its own fully owned subsidiary Becker
Industrial Coatings (M) Sdn. Bhd. in 1999, building a new factory on a greenfield
site.
In India, a joint venture with Berger Paints (India) was started in 1997,
based on a new factory in Goa.
After a period of direct export of coatings for
consumer electronics to Korea, Becker Industrial Coatings set up Becker Industrial Coatings (Korea)
Ltd.
In Canada Becker Industrial Coatings Inc. acquired the coil coating business
of Sico Inc. in 1998.
In South Africa, Becker Industrial Coatings, which had operated a licence agreement
with Plascon for several years, acquired the South African coil coatings specialist
company Advanced Coatings from Dekro Paints (Pty) Ltd. in 1999.
A number of licensees operate in other countries.