By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWhen Frank A. Mitri, president and general manager of AkzoNobel for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, agreed to take a new position in Puerto Rico in 2008, he believed he was coming to the island to close the AkzoNobel facility. Instead, over a short two years, the products developed at the factory have become so important to AkzoNobel and its Decorative Paint Division that the Puerto Rico operation is not only staying open; it experienced zero layoffs during the worldwide recession and is expanding. More so, the factory was key to the September 1 announcement last year by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that the Amsterdam-headquartered coatings giant would become the primary paint supplier for the more than 3,500 U.S. stores. AkzoNobel Decorative Paints in AkzoNobel’s region covering Canada, the United States and Latin America encompasses eight U.S. production plants and a research and development center in Strongsville, Ohio. The unit generates revenue of $1.91 billion a year. The Puerto Rico site is part of that operation. Well Established Ever since 1957, the Puerto Rico facility has been operating as a manufacturer of paint and chemical products. In 1997, the facility was purchased by Glidden, which – at the time – was part of ICI Paints in the United Kingdom. With the 2008 purchase of Glidden/ICI Paint by AkzoNobel in 2008, AkzoNobel acquired its first manufacturing base in the Caribbean. From the base in Puerto Rico, the company can service the whole of the Caribbean and beyond. Today this Decorative Paints division manufacturers paint and value-added chemical products used in new construction, property management, residential, new commercial projects and industrial protective coatings that can be used by roughly 89 manufacturers on the island. These include pharmaceuticals companies, Bacardi Corp., chemical manufactures and more. “We see opportunity in value-added protective coatings for clean room paints that are used in pharmaceuticals,” Mitri comments. That’s because Puerto Rico is home to a large pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing community, one of the most important worldwide. Mitri also sees opportunities in the tank lining petrochemical business and for window coatings for window manufacturers in Puerto Rico. “There are six window manufacturers on the island,” he states. To reach those companies, today AkzoNobel has 48 stores on Puerto Rico. In addition, the company now supplies Wal-Mart and Home Depot with its Glidden and Better Homes & Garden brands as well as independent dealers. In Puerto Rico alone, Wal-Mat operates 15 Super Centers. “We have had our share of innovation,” says Mitri. “We were the first in the market with one-coat roof coating.” The company was able to develop the products given that Puerto Rican builders are adept at concrete and flat roof construction, the result of building codes to maintain sturdy construction in the case of a hurricane. This gave AkzoNobel’s Puerto Rico access to expertise to develop products for this market base. Consequently, the company has introduced a one-coat roof coating product called Hydro Steel that is in national demand. “The technology used in this was also imported to the DuLux Professional Diamond paint brand that is now called Glidden Hydro Sealer,” Mitri says. Consequently, besides sharing the expertise the company has gained in Puerto Rico, exports the product, along with others, to the United States. Last year, 85 percent of the company’s Puerto Rican made products were consumed on the island. “But starting this year, 50 percent of what we make will be shipped to the United States,” Mitri reveals. “Some items such as non-slip floor paint are made here and exported to the States solely because of our technological expertise,” says Mitri. “There are unique products that we can make here that are not made in other AkzoNobel plants.” Such expertise makes the Puerto Rican AkzoNobel operation unique in that it can be shared with t