Comex Group - Sherwin Williams Aerospace

Comex Group is the fourth largest paint manufacturer and distributor of paints and waterproofing products in North America, with 3,300 locations.

History

Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW), the largest U.S. paint retailer, agreed in November 2012 to acquire closely held Consorcio Comex SA de CV for about $2.34 billion including debt to gain Mexicoâ€™s largest paint maker. The deal was rejected by Mexico's ComisiÃ³n Federal de Competencia in November 2013 for anti-trust purposes, and a result of such, PPG Industries has agreed to buy Comex for $2.3 billion Sherwin-Williams was still able to purchase Comex' operations in the USA and Canada for $165 million. After the failed bid in Mexico, and before the take-over by PPG, Comex sued Sherwin-Williams for not trying hard enough to seal the deal.

In July 2015, after the photo of president Enrique Pena Nieto showing his height deficit next to Felipe VI of Spain made the international headlines, Comex released on its Twitter account a photoshopped photo of the Mexican president standing on one of its paint pots with the text une pintura de altura (a paint of stature). After the post got widely retweeted, the company deleted it and made an official apology, arguing that the photo had not been approved before it went live.

Activity

Comex sells paint and coatings. As of 2013, the company distributed its products through 234 Comex stores in the USA, 80 Comex stores and 1500 external retailers in Canada. It also operates 5 manufacturing sites in the USA and 3 in Canada. In January 2016, Comex opened its 4,000th store in Mexico.