With The Carlyle Group’s acquisition of DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) for $4.9 billion in cash announced earlier this week, the popular brand will undergo a major transformation. That’s a good thing, according to one insider.
Like this article? Sign up to receive our weekly news blasts here."This is going to allow DuPont to focus on its strategic market segments, and the same is true for DPC," said Mike Bennett, DPC's North American marketing manager. "We can focus on our market segments, and funnel money back into growing those segments."
Carlyle also recently acquired the Service King Collision Repair Center group in July, buying a majority ownership in partnership with Service King's management and employees. Service King operates 49 locations in Texas, and has plans to expand even further. With the DPC purchase, Carlyle has bought a significant presence in the collision repair market, although it's unclear at this point if it has further plans within the industry. Carlyle representatives declined to comment for this story.
Although the acquisition effectively ends DuPont's involvement in the collision repair space, the company emphasized that it still generates some $3 billion in revenues from other automotive segments, including technology for light weighting vehicles, refrigerants, biobased seat fabrics and headliners, and biofuels.
Bennett said he expects other non-DPC products that DuPont provides to the collision space (like wipes and Tyvek items) to continue to be available through distribution arrangements.
Although he's had no direct input from Carlyle on the matter, Bennett said he thinks the DuPont Performance Coatings name and logo will eventually change. "We anticipate that over some period of time, the DuPont oval will be transitioned over to something else. What that something is, we don't know yet," Bennett said.
Bennett added that the DPC staff is excited about the transition. "We see this as a real change for us," Bennett said. "We can focus on our market segment, and Carlyle has committed to seeing us grow to our full potential. There's a real level of excitement here."
