W. R. Grace and Company

Infobox_Company
company_name = W. R. Grace and Company
company_
company_type = Public (NYSE|GRA)
slogan =
foundation = 1854
location = Columbia, Maryland
key_people = Alfred Festa, CEO & Pres
num_employees = 6,500
industry = Basic Materials
products = Specialty Chemicals
owner =
revenue =
homepage = [http://www.grace.com www.grace.com] |

W. R. Grace and Company (NYSE|GRA) is a Columbia, Maryland, United States based chemical conglomerate.

The company has two main divisions, Davison Chemicals and Performance Chemicals. The Davison unit makes chemical catalysts, refining catalysts, and silica-based products that let other companies make products from refined crude oil. Its Performance Chemicals unit makes cement and concrete additives, fireproofing chemicals, and packaging sealants. The customers include chemicals companies, construction firms, and oil refiners. [http://investor.grace.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112313&p=irol-irhome Company Info] @ Grace Investor Information]

Their self-description is "a premier specialty chemicals and materials company." Grace has more than 6,400 employees in nearly 40 countries, and annual sales of more than $2.5 billion. The company's stock, with ticker symbol "GRA," listed in 1953, trades on the New York Stock Exchange. [ [http://investor.grace.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112313&p=irol-stockquote Stock Info] @ Grace Investor Information]

History

W.R. Grace and Company was founded in 1854 in Peru by William Russell Grace (1832-1904), who left Ireland due to the Potato Famine. He went first to Peru to work as a ship's chandler to the merchantmen harvesting guano (fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen). The company moved to New York City in 1865. Working in fertilizer and machinery, the company was formally chartered in 1872, and incorporated in 1899. [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,829148,00.html "A Matter of Chemistry"] - Time Inc. - Friday, Mar. 23, 1962] Joseph P. Grace Sr. became company president in 1907. During the Second World War, in 1945, J. Peter Grace Jr., W.R. Grace's grandson, took control of the company. The company began to diversify.

In 1954, the company bought Davison Chemical Company (founded by William T. Davison as Davison, Kettlewell & Company in 1832), and the Dewey & Almy Chemical Company (founded in 1919 by Bradley Dewey and Charles Almy).

At one time, Grace's main business interest was in shipping. To get its products from Peru to North America and Europe, including guano and sugar, and noticing the need for other goods to be traded, William Grace founded a shipping division.

The company bought a 53% stake in Miller Brewing in 1966, for $36 million; Lorraine Mulberger sold the stake for religious reasons. [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,836471,00.html "A Deal Between Grandchildren"] - Time Inc. - Friday, Sep. 30, 1966] It sold the Miller stake in 1969 to Philip Morris for $130 million, topping a deal with PepsiCo for $120 million. [ [http://www.altria.com/about_altria/1_2_5_4_philipmorrisusastory.asp "The Philip Morris USA Story"] @ Altria.com] [ [http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~pw181000/esp/casestudy.htm "Miller Brewing Company: How New Leadership is Changing Corporate Culture"] Case Study @ Ohio University] [ [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Miller-Brewing-Company-Company-History.html Miller Brewing Company] @ FundingUniverse]

In 1987, with a can sealing plant in Shanghai, Grace became the first wholly foreign-owned company to do business in The People's Republic of China.

Grace's corporate headquarters are located in Columbia, Maryland. Although W. R. Grace commissioned the Grace Building in New York City, built in 1971, the company no longer has any offices occupying it.

ubsidiaries and products

Subsidiaries and some of their products include:

* Grace Davison [ [http://www.grace.com/About/Businesses/default.aspx Business Units] @ Grace.com]
** industrial catalysts, such as Raney nickel.
** silica products
* Grace Performance Chemicals [ [http://www.grace.com/gpc/ Grace Performance Chemicals] @ Grace.com]
** Grace Construction Products [ [http://www.graceconstruction.com/ Grace Construction] ]
*** concrete admixtures, fibers, and grinding aids
*** concrete pigments
*** air and vapor barriers
*** fireproofing materials
*** bituminous, structural, waterproofing membranes (such as Roofing Underlayments [ [http://www.na.graceconstruction.com/product.cfm?mode=c&id=63&did=8 Products] @ GraceConstruction.com] and waterproofing materials
** Darex [ [http://www.gracedarex.com/ Darex Website] ]
*** coatings, closures and sealants for soft drink cans and canned foods
**Residential Building Materials [ [http://www.graceathome.com Grace At Home.com] ]
***roofing membranes and flashings for windows, doors, decks and roof detail areas

Contamination incidents

W. R. Grace and Company has been involved in a number of controversial incidents of proven and alleged corporate crimes, including exposing workers to asbestos contamination in Libby and Troy, Montana, water contamination (the basis of the book and film "A Civil Action") in Woburn, Massachusetts, and an Acton, Massachusetts Superfund site.

Trichloroethylene

In the 1970s, it was discovered that W. R. Grace had improperly disposed of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent, which then entered the groundwater supply for the town of Woburn, Massachusetts. The chemical appears to have caused fatal cases of leukemia and cancer, as well as a wide variety of other health problems, among the citizens of the town.

Asbestos

Despite the fact that Grace is troubled with asbestos lawsuits, it still sells $1.4 billion of products a year. 150,000 lawsuits have been settled or dismissed and 120,000 remain. [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/uncivilaction/grac19.shtml The history of W.R. Grace & Co.] "Seattle Post-Intelligence", Thursday, November 18, 1999 (last accessed on August 28, 2007)] W. R. Grace and Company has faced more than 250,000 asbestos-related lawsuits. Grace no longer makes asbestos-related products.

After asbestos injury claims nearly doubled in 2000, W. R. Grace & Company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 due to the unexpected increase in asbestos litigation. The United States Department of Justice alleged that Grace had transferred 4 to 5 billion dollars to spin-off companies it had recently purchased, shortly before declaring bankruptcy. Justice Department attornies alleged that this amounted to a "fraudulent transfer" of money in order to protect Grace from civil suits related to asbestos. The bankruptcy court ordered the companies to return nearly $1 billion to Grace, which will remain as part of the assets to consider in the bankruptcy hearings.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice began criminal proceedings against W.R. Grace. The department announced that a grand jury in Montana indicted W.R. Grace and seven current and former Grace executives for knowingly endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information about the health effects of its asbestos mining operations. According to the indictment, W. R. Grace and its executives, as far back as the 1970s, attempted to conceal information about the adverse health effects of the company’s vermiculite mining operations and distribution of vermiculite in the Libby, Montana community. The defendants are also accused of obstructing the government’s cleanup efforts and wire fraud. To date, according to the indictment, approximately 1,200 residents of Libby area have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality. [United States Department of Justice [http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/February/05_enrd_048.htm W.R. Grace and Executives Charges with Fraud, Obstruction of Justice, and Endangering Libby, Montana Community] , February 7, 2005 press release (last accessed August 28, 2007)] The criminal proceedings are ongoing as of July 2007. [Carrie Johnson [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR2007071201799.html Asbestos Evidentiary Ruling Goes Against Grace] , "Washington Post", Friday, July 13, 2007; Page D05 (last accessed on August 28, 2007)]

Popular culture reaction

The movie A Civil Action, starring John Travolta, was based on these law suits.

The PBS television show "P.O.V.", which highlights independent films in August 2007 premiered the movie "Libby, Montana" that documents the thousands of people in Libby, Montana, that have been exposed to and are suffering the effects of exposure to asbestos. The show also discusses the criminal indictments of many Grace executives for covering up the asbestos related illnesses and deaths.

NPR ran a piece on their show "All Things Considered" discussing the criminal charges against W. R. Grace. A U.S. attorney general alleges that the company and managers of the mine in Libby, Montana, knew about the dangers of the asbestos they were dumping into the air for over 20 years. [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4491181 NPR.org episode discussing the criminal liability of WR Grace and its executives] ]

A University of Montana photojournalism master's thesis, [http://www.livingwithgrace.us/ Living with Grace] , explored the ramifications of living with asbestosis, a disease associated with the vermiculite mine run by W.R. Grace.

ee also

* "Anderson v. Cryovac", C.A. No. 82-1672-S (D. Mass)("Anne Anderson et al. v. Cryovac Inc. W.R. Grace Inc., John J. Riley Company Inc., Beatrice Inc. et al." Superior Court Civil Action #82-2444, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Filed May 14, 1982.):: "Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc.", 96 F.R.D. 431 (D. Mass. 1983) :: "Anderson v. W.R. Grace & Co.", 628 F. Supp. 1219 (D. Mass. 1986) :: "Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc.", 805 F.2d 1 (1st Cir. Mass. 1986) :: "Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc.", 862 F.2d 910 (1st Cir. Mass. 1988), on remand, Anderson v. Beatrice Foods Co., 127 F.R.D. 1 (D. Mass. 1989) :: "Anderson v. Beatrice Foods Co.", 129 F.R.D. 394 (D. Mass. 1989), aff'd, 900 F.2d 388 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 891 (1990)
* Beatrice Foods
* "Riley v. Harr," No. 01-1648 United States Court of Appeals - First Circuit ("John J. Riley, Jr. and Diana W. Riley (Plaintiffs, Appellants) v. Jonathan Harr; Random House, Inc., New York; Vintage Books; Random House Audio Publishing, Inc. (Defendants, Appellees")

References

External links

* [http://www.grace.com Corporate web site]
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/uncivilaction/ The Seattle PI's Coverage of Libby Montana]
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0433408/ IMDb listing for the film "Libby, Montana"]