User:Ellenbwright/draft on La-co

La-Co Industries is a family owned and operated company based out of Elk Grove Village, IL. The company is widely known for its Markal Paintstiks, but has a wide product line that includes thread sealants, soldering fluxes, speciality chemicals, and a number of various marking products for both industrial and livestock purposes, as well as a variety of niche products. The need for this broad product base lead La-Co Industries to market products under three distinct brands:

·La-Co provides a wide variety of plumbing products for plumbing and HVAC professionals.

·Markal offers wide range of both permanent and temporary marking products for a variety of industrial needs.

·All-Weather provides a wide range of marking products for the farm including Paintstiks, sprays, and ear tag markers.

History
Dr. Lester Aronberg founded La-Co Industries as the Lake Chemical Company in 1934. The Chicago based chemist built the company around the Stick-o-Paint. This was Dr. Aronberg’s solution to making industrial manufacturing marking neater and more efficient. This revolutionary product took paint and reformulated it into a handheld stick. The Stick-o-Paint would eventually evolve into the Markal B Paintstik and would lead to the expansion of the company. By the 1940s, the Painstik was being used in the World War II efforts and La-Co Industries was continuing to put out new products and product lines. Plumbing products and chemicals were now being produced under the brand La-Co. The first product in this line was the Pipetite Stik, which put thread compound in stick form. During this time, on the Markal side, Dr. Aronberg created several more varieties of Paintstik for any niche market that asked. One of those markets spawned the final brand for La-Co Industries. The All-Weather brand began in 1945 with the All-Weather Paintstik designed for livestock marking. This brand would later evolve into livestock spray paints and ear tag markers.

The company continued to grow and bring new products to the market in the plumbing and marking categories. In 1950, the company introduced La-Co Regular Flux, which was the first water-soluble, all-weather flux. The company continued to put out industry changing products and in 1971 La-Co produced another one of those products, Slic-tite. This thread sealant revolutionized the plumbing industry by putting polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE in the sealant. This allowed the pipes to be easily screwed together.

As the La-Co plumbing brand of the company grew, so did the Markal marking brand. In 1987, Markal went outside of the solid stick paint model and started producing a liquid paint marker called the Valve Action Paint Marker. This paint marker quickly became a top selling product, as it was very popular in the automobile industry, as well as several other industries.

In 1999, the plumbing brand introduced the heat barrier spray Cool Gel to help reduce fires while soldering and brazing. The most recent product introduction was the 2008 release of the Proline HP which was designed as a quick drying alternative to the Valve Action Paint marker.

A number of things were happening outside the manufacturing plant and chemistry lab as well. In 1980, La-Co received the “Counterman’s Pledge” plaque because of the company’s continued support of the plumbing industry. As the company continued to grow and expand, they outgrew several buildings in downtown Chicago, and in 1994 left the city of their current home in Elk Grove Village, IL. In 2007, La-Co launched their biggest national promotion, Pick-up and Win. This promotion awarded the randomly selected buyers of La-Co products with prizes and one grand prize winner walked away with a new Ford F-150 truck. More recently, La-Co Industries celebrated a milestone, celebrating their 75th Anniversary in 2009. Also in 2009, the company became an international company with the acquisition of Intrama SAS in Blyes, France. The year 2010 started out strong for La-Co Industries as well. The company walked away with a 2010 AHR Expo Innovation Award for Cool Gel.

The Lester Aronberg Foundation and Scholarships
Dr. Arongberg was more than a chemist. He was also a philanthropist to many Jewish organizations including The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, as well as the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago. In the early 1970s the Lester Aronberg Foundation was established and through a donation to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1979, the Lester Aronberg Chair in Applied Chemistry was formed. In the 1980s the foundation established several scholarships in Aronberg's name: The Dr. Lester Aronberg Fund, the Dr Lester Aronberg Scholarship establised in 1981, the Dr. Lester Aronberg Fund for Research in Human Immunology, , the Lester Aronberg Memorial Student Aid Endowment Fund, and the Lester Aronberg Foundation Student Aid Endowment Fund for the Pearch Program.

Acquisitions
In November 2009, La-Co Industries, acquired majority ownership of Intrama S.A.S. Based out of Blyes, France, Intrama is a leading industrial marking products manufacturer and distributor. The companies have built a cross distribution relationship over the past several years because of the ease at which the companies marking brands work together. This acquisition has also allowed La-Co Industries to expand the overseas presence of the company and allowed them to utilize Intrama's overseas facility. The La-Co plans to have the two companies completely merged in the next several years.

International Presence and Expansion
Continued success over the years lead LA-CO Industries, Inc to expand their presence overseas and throughout the world. With distributors Central and South America, Asia, Middle East, and Africa and totaling over 50 countries, LA-CO is continually working to reach as many people as possible.

With the acquisition of Intrama S.A.S., LA-CO Industries is planning on expanding their presence even more so. With ALL-WEATHER currently among world leaders in livestock marking for herd management, LA-CO Industries will use Intrama to help expand and grow the LA-CO and Markal brands so they can thrive internationally as they do in the United States.

La-Co
-Cool Gel

-Regualr Flux Paste

-Slic-tite

-Oxy-Tite

-Lifter Wipes

Markal
-B Paintstik

-Valve Action Paint Marker

-Pro-line HP

-Pro-Wash

-Dura-Ink Permanent and Dry Erase

All-Weather
-All-Weather Paintstik

-All-Weather Twist Stik

-All-Weather Stock Shot