Kelly-Moore Paints shutting down

[bcla]

There were an institution here in the San Francisco Bay Area where they started out and where they have major operations. I used their paints before when painting a rental property and once I ended up with $100 in their gift cards from a $5 raffle. But apparently the cost of asbestos litigation is bringing them down, even though they haven't sold anything with asbestos since 1981.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisc...den-halt-of-operations-closure-of-all-stores/

 

[DodgerGirl]

Isn't Kelly Moore Paints the third biggest paint shop chain in the world next to Benjamin Moore Paints and Sherwin Williams? What a surprise that Kelly Moore Paints is closing all of it's stores because it used to be that when you would be painting your home everyone would say Kelly Moore Paints was the best paint to use for painting your home. I think the reason why Kelly Moore Paints is closing all it's stores is that they have competed with The Home Depot and Lowes and since most people can buy house paint at The Home Depot and Lowes I think Kelly Moore couldn't compete with them. But I think down the line some company will buy Kelly Moore Paints and try to revive the store chain. But I think the next paint store chain to close will most likely be Sherwin Williams because you rarely see commercials for Sherwin Williams as much as Kelly Moore Paints. But this is a true shock to the home improvement industry indeed

 

[disneychrista]

Kind of a bummer because when I paint the exterior of my house we used Kelly Moore. The contractor who remodeled my bathroom did as well.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Not a company I ever heard of…were they centered on the west coast?

 

[ronandannette]

Not a company I ever heard of…were they centered on the west coast?

I thought the same - it must not be an international brand like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams.

 

[disneychrista]

Not a company I ever heard of…were they centered on the west coast?

I thought the same - it must not be an international brand like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams.

They were headquartered in Northern California. A quick check of their website lists California, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas as sates they have locations.

 

[tvguy]

They were headquartered in Northern California. A quick check of their website lists California, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas as sates they have locations.

There are in California, Nevada and Texas and they had a deal with Walmart for distribution but not sure where the products that were part of their partnership were sold. Their corporate headquarters are in California, but they made all their paint in Hunt, Texas. Like @bcla noted, the cost of settling asbestos claims is what put them out of business. Some of those claims date back to products sold 78 years ago.

 

[bcla]

There are in California, Nevada and Texas and they had a deal with Walmart for distribution but not sure where the products that were part of their partnership were sold. Their corporate headquarters are in California, but they made all their paint in Hunt, Texas. Like @bcla noted, the cost of settling asbestos claims is what put them out of business. Some of those claims date back to products sold 78 years ago.

They moved their HQ to Texas last year.

https://therealdeal.com/sanfrancisc...e-to-pack-up-its-paints-and-move-hq-to-texas/

As for asbestos claims, I remember Manville and GAF settled those as class actions early. Even after Manville settled, they were doing damage control where they're still in business. I remember Jack Nicklaus doing Manville ads in the mid-80s. But watch enough TV or streaming, and there are ads for attorneys looking to file mesothelioma claims.

 

[bcla]

I thought the same - it must not be an international brand like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams.

Kelly-Moore is a regional company. Apparently the founders worked at Glidden before opening their own business.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Isn't Kelly Moore Paints the third biggest paint shop chain in the world next to Benjamin Moore Paints and Sherwin Williams? What a surprise that Kelly Moore Paints is closing all of it's stores because it used to be that when you would be painting your home everyone would say Kelly Moore Paints was the best paint to use for painting your home. I think the reason why Kelly Moore Paints is closing all it's stores is that they have competed with The Home Depot and Lowes and since most people can buy house paint at The Home Depot and Lowes I think Kelly Moore couldn't compete with them. But I think down the line some company will buy Kelly Moore Paints and try to revive the store chain. But I think the next paint store chain to close will most likely be Sherwin Williams because you rarely see commercials for Sherwin Williams as much as Kelly Moore Paints. But this is a true shock to the home improvement industry indeed

In the U.S. They are technically 2nd behind Sherwin Williams. But the latter has over 4,000 stores, the former less than 800. But complicating the issue is that there there are more stores that sell Benjamin Moore Paint than there are Sherwin Williams but they're all independently owned and operated and many are full hardware stores rather than just paint. So they don't count. Also Home Depot isn't a paint store even though their paint brand Behr, is a top seller. So they don't count. Lowes brand Valspar is a Sherwin Williams product. But they don't count lowes as a Sherwin Williams store.
You see where this is going. The specialty paint store is a dying breed.

As for the Asbestos claims, those are from Between 1960 and 1978 during the time after Kelly-Moore bought Paco Textures. Ceiling compound and joint compounds were laced with it.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think in the paint store industry there has been signs of going downhill even though lots of people buy house paint to paint their houses or to give their houses a fresh new look. Because if you go to a hardware store such as Ace Hardware or True Value you'll see that house paint is much cheaper than at a paint store. But once paint store chains such as Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore Paints started competing with the hardware stores like Ace Hardware and even Sears had it's own line of house paints as did True Value Kelly Moore Paints just couldn't compete with the other places. But there's another paint store chain that has been also a competitor to Kelly Moore Paints and that is Frazee Paints and Frazee Paints has locations in Southern California New Mexico Nevada Texas and Arizona and I think Frazee Paints should've bought Kelly Moore Paints and converted the Kelly Moore Paints stores into Frazee Paints stores to expand Frazee Paints into Northern California

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think it's because not many people bought house paint to paint their houses much that caused Kelly Moore Paints to go broke and when you look at it when it came to painting your house people would call a painter but even that has become more pricier today. I think if Kelly Moore Paints would've gained more shoppers and built more stores they could've survived longer. Because as I mentioned in my opening posts paint stores are dying because most people go to hardware stores to get cheap deals on house paint these days. Has Kelly Moore Paints begun their going out of business sales yet? I'm curious to know?