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More than just plating glass One of the largest glass makers in the world, PPG Industries was founded as Pittsburgh Plate Glass by John B. Ford, John Pitcairn, and others in 1883 in Creighton, PA. Their venture became America's first successful commercial maker of plate glass. Now a major supplier of windshields for automobiles and jets, PPG also ranks among the world's leading producers of industry and specialty glass and chemicals, and residential and commercial coatings; they are also a major North American producer of residential paints. In recent years, PPG has focused upon global expansion, especially in markets in Euorope and the Asia-Pacific region. The company now operates 110 manufacturing facilities in 22 countries, with 250 paint retail stores in the southeastern United States. Shopping spree Since 1997, PPG has been acquiring companies left and right. In those three years, the company has had 20 acquisitions totaling over $2 billion. Among those, PPG bought Akzo Nobel's California-based PRC-DeSoto International for $512 million to add to its aerospace coatings and sealants division. Also in 1999, PPG payed Imperial Chemical Industries $684 million for its Germany-based coating business and US-based auto refinish and industrial coating businesses. More recently, in 2000, PPG acquired the Texas architectural coatings manufacturer, Monarch Paint Company, to further serve its regional markets in the southwest. This was followed by PPG's merger with Apogee Enterprises to form the joint venture PPG Auto Glass LLC, which combines the US automotive replacement glass distribution businesses of each company. PPG holds a 66 percent stake in the new company. Going live PPG's new strategic business unit is maintaining the company's current e-commerce efforts, while continually searching for new opportunities on the Web. These new opportunities could be something like the deal PPG made in February 2000 with ChemConnect Inc., the largest Internet exchange for all types of chemicals. PPG agreed to trade online through the World Chemical Exchange and make an equity investment in ChemConnect.
The company web site, located at www.ppg.com, provides employment information, including PPG's college recruiting schedule and information on MBA programs. Applicants with Bachelor's degrees may also submit resumes via either regular mail or e-mail (ASCII text only). MBAs can apply online by linking to the MBA section from the company's home page. PPG scans resumes into a central database and holds them for a maximum of six months.
PPG's employees report that "the company is in an elite class when it comes to how it treats its employees." The company "has made great strides in the last 10 years to become more responsive to the needs of employees" and as a result, "the communication between the different levels of management has become much approved." Employees work together in a "team environment" and "take pride in succeeding together." They also comment that the company?s size enables it to foster "genuine diversity in the workforce" as well as to provide "excellent opportunities for advancement and even the chance to change career tracks." PPG's emphasis on "stability," however, translates into "inflexible" and "fairly traditional" "work rules." While dress at headquarters is usually business formal, employees report that recently, summers have been entirely business casual, and that less formal garb is becoming more common.
Russell L. Crane Human Resources
Aerospace coatings and sealants;Aircraft transparencies;Automotive coatings;Automotive glass;Automotive pretreatments, adhesives, and sealants;Chlor-alkali and derivative chemicals;Fiberglass;Industrial coatings;Packaging coatins;Specialty chemicals;Transitions optical lenses
ICI;Kansai Paint;Nippon Paint;Pilkington;SNPE More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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