JAMESTOWN, Pa. – Michael Walton points to a graveled lot between Jamestown Coating Technologies’ administrative offices and its paint manufacturing plant in Jamestown, Pa. A closer look reveals slight indentations that bear the marks of an old pathway, extending toward a renovated building on the south side of the property.
The path, it turns out, once served as a spur for the Jamestown and Franklin Railroad during the 19th century, Walton says. The renovated structure served as its depot. By the late 1870s, a larger conglomerate, the New York Central, had acquired a controlling interest in the railroad.
Simultaneously, a railroad that ran southwest from Conneaut, Ohio, that would ultimately become part of the Bessemer and Lake Erie line passed directly through the hamlet in northwestern Pennsylvania.
This railroad junction – plus the town’s access to industrial markets in Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Pittsburgh – made it a prime location to establish the Jamestown Paint & Varnish Co. in 1885, says Walton , CEO of Jamestown Coating Technologies, as its known today.
“When you think of transportation then, things were moving by train or moving by barge,” he says. “Being at the intersection of two major railways was a big advantage for the founders.”
These railroads are long gone. Jamestown Coating – established 140 years ago by an immigrant from Germany, Victor Hugo von Ehrhart – has endured, adapted and thrived as a local business that’s touched three centuries.
Today, the industrial paint manufacturer ships its products all over the world, Walton says. “On average, we’re shipping about 50,000 gallons a month,” he notes. “That’s primarily in the U.S. We also export into Canada and to Mexico.” Approximately 90% of Jamestown’s customers are in North America, though last year the company exported to 13 different countries.
In 2024, the global industrial coatings market was expected to reach $93.6 billion, according to Grandview Research. That market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3.8% between 2025 and 2030.
Jamestown’s Roots
By the 1940s, the second generation of the von Ehrhart family was considering a sale of the business. At that time, Walton’s great grandfather, Joseph F. Walton, a tax attorney in Cleveland, was contacted by the company to help sell the company. “He came back to the von Ehrhart brothers with a leveraged buyout proposal,” and entered into a 10-year buyout agreement. Following World War II, Walton’s grandfather, Joseph M. Walton, joined the company.
In 1951, however, Joseph F. Walton died suddenly while on a fishing trip, leaving his son to run the company at age 26, Walton says. “The same year, our factory in Jamestown burned down,” he relates.
Fortunately, Jamestown Coatings had “mutual disaster” agreements with two other companies, enabling the company to manufacture its paint products as it rebuilt its plant. “Part of the existing factory was built in 1951, but we’ve added on several times over the years.” Walton’s grandfather was actively involved in the company for 54 years, he says, and stayed on as chairman until his death three years ago, at 95.
Much of the business during the 1950s was done with the automotive industry, and during the 1960s, Jamestown became one of the first coatings companies to pioneer water-based coatings for industrial applications. “Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, we became known for environmentally friendly coatings that helped companies reduce emissions while maintaining performance.”
Jamestown Coating manufactures paint and coatings for applications in the heavy-duty off-road equipment, packaging, automotive and other markets, Walton says. “Today, our business is split into two distinct segments,” he says. Consumer packaging – that is, products derived from glass, plastics, steel and aluminum used for food and beverage containers and pharmaceuticals, for example – constitutes 40% of the company’s business.
Another segment is the company’s industrial coatings business line, Walton says. “That could be everything from manufacturing paint for dumpsters, heavy equipment, metal fabrications such as propane cylinders, some automotive machinery or heavy truck engines,” he says. “Any type of metal fabricated product that needs protective or a decorative finish.”
Manufacturing Process
Jamestown Coatings’ manufacturing plant is a combination of some of the most technologically sophisticated equipment and machines dating to the 1950s, Walton says. “The way we make the products really hasn’t changed much in the last 75 years,” he says.
Jamestown uses a combination of resins – which gives paint adhesion, flexibility and corrosion resistance properties – and pigments, which provides color, Walton says. Pigments are primarily derived from minerals – such as ore – mostly mined in China and India. Among the most common is titanium dioxide, he says.
“Then we’re adding water, solvents or a combination of the two to thin things down to an application viscosity,” Walton says.
“The equipment’s gotten more modern, more efficient. Some of the equipment has digital controls that maintain our consistency, batch after batch,” Walton adds.
While this has helped add precision to the paint mixing process, Walton says there’s little automation at the company. It cannot manufacture quantities as large as some companies can because it is handling several products. “We’re making so many different products here, [and] we still have a lot of processes that require people to oversee those processes,” he says. The company employs 49.
The company has been successful in recruiting and training new employees, as some of the more experienced ones retired. “We’ve worked hard to train the next generation both in our manufacturing facility and research and development,” he says.
Last year, the company invested $2 million in new equipment and processes that are expected to come online sometime during the first quarter. The new systems should grow output by 25%, he says. “We’ve added several tanks and mixers, doubled our power supply,” he says. “It’s the largest investment we’ve made in the facility in about 35 years.”
Jamestown’s 50,000 square-foot plant teems with mixing vats, both large and small. Ingredients are calibrated by equipment operators according to recipes – some typed out and attached to clipboards – developed at the company.
Much of the work is done behind the scenes in a lab that fosters research and development for new mixtures and products, Walton says.
The company’s R&D division sponsors an internship program in partnership with eight local colleges, including Youngstown State University, and Thiel, Westminster and Grove City colleges. In the last two years, three students were hired from the program – one chemist from Grove City and two chemists from Thiel, he says. “It’s been great for us,” he says.
Ryan Renwick, packaging coatings director, says his work is concentrated on new research and development opportunities for the company.
“I specialize in coatings that are going to be used for packaging applications,” he says. These would include developing coatings that are used on foil-related and steel-related products for food packaging, for example.
“We develop new colors, we also match colors, we also match properties,” he says. “We’re trying to make safer solutions.”
Renwick, who has been with the company since 2003, started with Jamestown’s internship program and was hired full-time in 2005.
He’s worked on other projects as well, including industrial coatings. “Every application is a little bit different,” he says.
Renwick envisions most of Jamestown Coating’s growth coming from its existing product lines. Over the last nine years, the company has grown sales approximately 9% year-over-year through existing business and acquisitions. The latest of these came in 2022 with the acquisition of Yenkin-Majestic, a Columbus-area industrial coatings company.
“By August of that year, we moved all that manufacturing to Jamestown,” he says. “We bought their formulations, their customer lists and some trademarks.”
Most of the growth, he adds, has been organic. During the pandemic and the ensuing supply chain crisis, for example, Walton explains its R&D division was able to pivot and find alternative chemicals that would work in the company’s formulations instead of new products.
“None of our customers ran out of paint,” he says. “We actually picked up a lot of new business because we were able to pivot so quickly.” Nearly all that business, Walton adds, has been retained.
“We may look at another strategic acquisition within the next couple of years,” Walton says. “But we see a lot of opportunities for organic growth.”
Pictured at top: Michael Walton, CEO, in the mixing lab.