7373 Production Drive - Mentor OH 44060 - p: 440-974-3800

SubCategory: All Acrylic Alkyd Chlorinated Epoxy Gorilla Paint MMA Polyester Waterborne Applications: All Airports Athletic Fields Auxilliary Markings Crosswalks Highways Parking Lots Safety Zones Streets Federal Specification: All AASHTO M-248 Type N AASHTO M-248 Type S AASHTO M248 Type F OTC Regulations TT-P-110C-TYPE I TT-P-115 F TT-P-115E TYPE I TT-P-115E TYPE II TT-P-115E TYPE III TT-P-115F TT-P-115F TYPE I TT-P-115F TYPE II TT-P-1952B TT-P-1952D TT-P-1952D TYPE I TT-P-1952D TYPE II TT-P-85E TTP-1952-E Type I TTP-1952-E Type II Color: All Black Blue Clear Green Red White Yellow

History   Aexcel Corporation was founded as DeSantis Coatings by Erminio and Vincent DeSantis in 1963. We started with a 10,000 square foot plant in Willoughby, Ohio, three people, one high-speed mixer and no customers. We began bidding on traffic paint contracts for state, county and city use and, in 1964, successfully bid to supply 600,000 gallons to the State of Ohio. That contract, along with other small bids and accounts, started the Company "on the way." Over the next several years, it became necessary to offer less seasonal products, so maintenance coatings and industrial coatings were added to the line. Other products, such as bridge and structural steel paints soon followed. In 1968, a 10,000 square foot addition was made to the plant. Erminio DeSantis died in 1969. The year 1973 was very difficult for us. The oil embargo cut so deeply into the availability of raw materials that we were close to default on several contracts. An additional 30,000 square feet, including a new office and laboratory, already under contract, were added in 1973. Vincent DeSantis was felled by a fatal heart attack in July of that year.   In 1974, new ownership and a new management team were established. The company was headed by Joseph B. Milgram, Jr., a chemical engineer and businessman with long experience of developing new technologies into new businesses for the chemical industry.   Over the next few years, new people, products, and technologies were brought into the organization. Growth was steady, if slow, but the company had a good reputation for fair dealing with vendors and customers, and people would come to us with good ideas since they knew we were progressive. The late 70s and early 80s were extremely difficult as we coped with inflation in the US economy in general, and in our petrochemical raw material base in particular. The so-called Rust Belt Recession of 1981 and 1982 squeezed many manufacturing firms – our customers. However, innovations in management practices and an atmosphere of teamwork at DeSantis combined to strengthen the company and allow it to grow.   We rebounded nicely with the Rust Belt Recovery of the mid-1980s. We had the good sense to focus on value-adding coatings of superior performance at a time when Midwestern manufacturers were concentrating on improving quality and lowering total cost. Our Uthane brand of proprietary polyurethane coatings really took off during the late 1980s and into the 1990s. You could find products coated with our high-performance paints in many consumer retail locations. In 1988, the Company adopted its new name, Aexcel Corporation, not only to reflect our positive and progressive outlook, but also to establish a new and recognizable corporate identity nationwide. We also began a stronger marketing effort on behalf of our original product line, Traffic Safety Paints. We built up our Distributor network, we broadened our product offerings and we began to work on the waterborne Traffic Paints that we knew would form the basis for innovation in ever more environmentally conscious times.   In 1989, the Company completed its move into a brand new 70,000 square foot building on eight acres at Mentor, Ohio. The new plant was designed to incorporate the latest concepts of efficiency, safety, productivity, and concern for the environment. A large warehouse was added shortly thereafter, in order to keep up with the rapid growth we were experiencing. We had more than doubled our sales from 1986 to 1993! Mr. John S. Milgram was appointed President in 1993, and we continued to work on the development of improved Uthane technologies in the face of stiff competition from powder coatings. Alas, over time, powder coatings won that battle, and the company had to seek new products and new markets to replace our traditional Uthane polyurethanes. Not every new product is rewarded with customers, as we learned the hard way. But we pressed on, and have been fortunate to be able to respond to changing customer needs. During this time, our traditional position in Traffic Paints held us together, and our reputation for quality, integrity and service was increased. We were justly proud of our work in 1997 for the Indiana Department of Transportation when we provided them with 603 thousand gallons of on-time and problem-free paints. This had not happened to them for many years. The period from mid-1999 to early 2001 was a time for difficult re-structuring at Aexcel. The dot-com bust had repercussions in Ohio, and we experience a variety of unusual events. Several long-time employees retired. Customers of our customers filed Chapter 11, and our products were eliminated. Competition in traffic paint was intense as prices were lowered across the board by large companies seeking only to increase market share. Manufacturers were consolidating plants, standardizing products with national suppliers and moving to lower-labor-cost locations. Outsourcing was the word in many markets. We voluntarily left some customers, as we calculated that we were merely trading dollars, or worse. The industrial coatings world changed more than in the prior twenty years. We had to change with it, or disappear. We cut the company back to the size we had been in 1987. We focused only on core products, best customers and key materials. We joined the industry-leading purchasing cooperative, GuildCPO, and continue to be active in this group. We worked diligently on improving quality and delivery to our customer group. The payoff has been customers rewarding us with additional business. We have returned to growth in these times of coatings industry consolidation, when many of our small-business friends in the industry have chosen to align with larger firms.   Since the 1970s, the Company has invested in leading edge data systems. We are on our third generation of such systems, and we believe we have a competitive advantage in our use of such systems. We capture data from every aspect of our operation and have created a variety of creative and useful management tools in this system. We believe we are quite advanced in this area, especially for a company of our size.   In 2007, the management is dedicated to the values set in place by our Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Joseph B. Milgram, Jr: Fair, progressive and honest dealings with all. We are working hard to remain independent, for now and the future, in a competitive and consolidating marketplace. There is nothing more powerful to meet this goal than the objective of keeping satisfied customers.   Our emphasis upon customer service, teamwork, R&D, and our ability to deliver uniformly high quality products have placed us in a position to compete strongly in the markets of the future.

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