Crown Paints is a major

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

manufacturer based in

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. It is owned by

Hempel Group Hempel A/S is a global supplier of coatings and services in the protective, marine, decorative, container and yacht industries. Hempel factories, R&D centres and stock points are established in every region and the company was founded in Copenhage ...

History

The origins of the business lie in the history of paint making in

, which can be traced back to the late 1850s. It initially traded as ''WalPaMur'' after the initials of ''The Wall Paper Manufacturers' Company''. The company traded independently as ''Crown Berger'' for over a century before it was taken over by

Williams Holdings Williams Holdings was a major British conglomerate. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was established by Nigel Rudd and Brian McGowan in Derby in 1982 to acquire under ...

in 1987 and then by

Akzo Nobel Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countrie ...

in 1990. It was sold in a management buyout backed by the

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm Endless in August 2008, in a deal to satisfy the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

's concerns of a possible

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

after Akzo Nobel's takeover of ICI. The company were once sponsors of

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

and

Blackburn Rovers F.C. Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. ...

In June 2011, the company was acquired by Danish paints manufacturer,

References

External links

Official WebsiteOfficial Irish Website
Paint and coatings companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Lancashire {{UK-manufacturing-company-stub