PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) Business Profile

What it does

PPG Industries manufactures and distributes paints, coatings and specialty products. Its coatings protect or decorate surfaces ranging from houses and cars to aircraft, ships and metal packaging. The company also sells adhesives, sealants, pavement-marking products and materials used in optical lenses and displays.

PPG was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh. Timothy M. Knavish is its chairman and chief executive officer. The company markets and sells in more than 50 countries.

The business serves both manufacturers and customers maintaining existing assets. Automakers and their suppliers use PPG coatings and related materials in vehicle production. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers use its aerospace coatings, sealants and transparencies. Repair shops use its automotive refinish products, while shipbuilders and maintenance contractors use protective and marine coatings.

For buildings, PPG supplies decorative paints, stains, adhesives and finishes to painting contractors and consumers. It also provides products for roads, including pavement-marking paints and markers. Its specialty products include materials for labels, identification cards, displays and optical lenses.

PPG organizes these activities into Global Architectural Coatings, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. Alongside physical products, it provides technical services, coatings application services and digital solutions. Some of its industrial work is performed at customers’ manufacturing locations, while other products reach buyers through stores, distributors and retailers.

How it makes money

PPG earns revenue by selling coatings and related products and services through its three business segments. Net sales were $15.9 billion in 2025. In the third quarter of 2026, organic sales increased 5%, including 2% volume growth.

Industrial Coatings supplies factory customers, including automotive manufacturers, with formulated coatings, adhesives, sealants and metal pretreatments. It also sells coatings for appliances, equipment and packaging, as well as specialty materials for optical and other applications. The segment generally sells directly to manufacturers and coatings applicators. Some customer contracts use index-based pricing, which can delay the effect of cost changes on selling prices.

Performance Coatings supplies aerospace, automotive refinish, protective and marine, and traffic solutions customers. Its products range from aircraft transparencies to repair-shop coatings and road markings. It sells directly to customers and through company-owned networks and independent distributors. Some demand comes from the maintenance and repair of vehicles, aircraft and other assets already in use; other products go to manufacturers.

Global Architectural Coatings sells decorative products for residential and commercial buildings. Contractors and consumers buy them through company-owned stores, home centers, retailers, dealers, distributors and direct channels. Sales support both new construction and maintenance or decoration of existing buildings.

Pricing, sales volumes, currency movements and portfolio changes all affect revenue. In 2025, higher selling prices, sales volume growth and favorable currency translation were offset by divestitures. PPG also experiences seasonal patterns: architectural coatings demand in Europe and traffic solutions demand in the U.S. and Canada are typically strongest in the second and third quarters, while the Latin American paint season is strongest in the fourth quarter.

Customers and how it sells

PPG sells to manufacturers, repair businesses, contractors, government customers and consumers. Its industrial customers include automotive manufacturers and suppliers, packaging producers, makers of appliances and equipment, and manufacturers of other finished products. Aerospace customers span commercial, military, regional jet and general aviation aircraft.

The routes to those customers vary. Industrial coatings generally go directly to manufacturers and coatings applicators. Aerospace products are sold directly and through a company-owned distribution network. Automotive refinish products reach customers directly and through independent distributors. Architectural products are available through company-owned stores, home centers, retailers, paint dealers and other channels.

PPG markets and sells in more than 50 countries. In 2025, revenue was $5.4 billion in the United States and Canada and $5.4 billion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific generated $2.9 billion, and Latin America generated $2.2 billion.

The company has manufacturing and distribution facilities across those regions. Its architectural business serves customers in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2025, PPG reported stronger demand in some markets, including aerospace and protective and marine coatings, while European demand was soft, particularly for automotive original-equipment and architectural coatings.

Suppliers and costs

Raw materials are PPG’s largest production cost component. Important inputs include resins, solvents, reactants, titanium dioxide, additives, epoxy and pigments. Some are petroleum-derived, while others are inorganic. Most raw materials and energy used in production are purchased from outside sources.

PPG manages critical supplies by contracting with multiple sources and identifying alternative materials or technologies where possible. It also operates sourcing laboratories to help manage formulations and raw-material costs. Its manufacturing footprint includes facilities across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, and it operates research laboratories near customers to customize products for their applications.

Input prices can change with supplier feedstock costs, energy prices, currencies, tariffs and global supply and demand. Raw-material costs were generally stable in 2025. In the third quarter of 2026, PPG’s commercial actions fully offset company-wide cost-of-goods-sold inflation, although Industrial Coatings had not yet covered that inflation because of the timing of index-based contract pricing.

PPG also incurs labor, manufacturing, logistics, research and administrative costs.

Competitive position

PPG competes with global coatings companies and with regional and local suppliers. In architectural coatings, its named global competitors include Akzo Nobel, Nippon Paint, the Jotun Group and Sherwin-Williams. Performance Coatings competitors include Axalta Coating Systems, BASF Corporation, RPM International, Sherwin-Williams and 3M. In Industrial Coatings, PPG names Akzo Nobel, Axalta, BASF, Kansai Paints, Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams.

Competition depends on product performance, technology, quality, price, customer service, productivity and distribution. Brand recognition is also a factor in architectural and performance coatings. PPG sells through a mix of direct relationships, independent distributors, retail outlets and company-owned stores. It customizes products for customer applications and provides on-site services at some manufacturing locations.

Our reading: Customer-specific formulations and on-site services can make PPG’s industrial relationships more durable, although competitors also offer products in these markets. Its distribution network and brands support access to architectural customers, but the presence of global and regional competitors limits the protection they provide. In aerospace and packaging, technical products and customer relationships provide another source of differentiation, though PPG still faces competition on performance, service and price.

Growth opportunities

PPG seeks growth through product development, customer productivity services and share gains. Its research efforts focus on new products and applications, including formulations intended to help customers reduce energy use, water use or waste. The company also develops coatings and related materials for battery-powered vehicles, recyclable packaging and aircraft.

Aerospace has been a growth area. PPG delivered its 22nd consecutive quarter of organic sales growth in the third quarter of 2026. The company expects more than $2 billion in aerospace sales in 2026 and is investing more than $500 million to expand capacity and improve productivity across that business. The investment includes expanding aerospace transparencies operations in Huntsville, Alabama, to add capacity for aircraft cockpit and passenger windows.

Packaging is another area where PPG reported share gains. It attributes them to BPA non-intent technologies, its manufacturing footprint and technical customer partnerships. In the third quarter of 2026, packaging coatings delivered double-digit organic sales growth.

PPG reported 5% company-wide organic sales growth in that quarter. For the fourth quarter, it expects organic sales growth of a low single digit percentage, led by aerospace, architectural coatings in Latin America and packaging coatings. It is also pursuing productivity and restructuring actions in its European architectural business, including four plant closures.

Structural risks

• Input costs and supply: Higher raw-material prices or reduced availability could hurt results. Energy prices, tariffs, supplier feedstock costs and global supply and demand can affect input costs. Some index-based contracts delay the recovery of inflation through selling prices.
• End-market demand: Demand varies with industrial production, construction, vehicle repair and other customer activity. PPG expects European and global industrial end-use markets to remain challenged; lower collision claims affected automotive refinish volumes in 2025.
• International exposure: Operations outside the U.S. expose PPG to economic and political conditions, trade protection measures and foreign-currency fluctuations. Currency translation can affect both sales and income.
• Environmental obligations: PPG faces environmental regulation and remediation costs at current and former sites. It has $206 million reserved for environmental remediation and estimates approximately $100 million to $200 million in reasonably possible unreserved losses.
• Seasonality: Architectural coatings and traffic solutions demand varies during the year. Income before income taxes has typically been greater in the second and third quarters, while operating cash flow has been greatest in the fourth quarter.
• Acquisitions: Integrating acquired businesses can involve delays, unexpected liabilities, customer or supplier losses, and difficulties retaining employees or conforming acquired operations to PPG’s processes.

Bottom line

Our reading

PPG combines factory coatings with products used to maintain and repair buildings, vehicles, aircraft and infrastructure, sold through both direct relationships and distribution networks (item1). Aerospace growth and packaging share gains provide opportunities, while industrial demand, input costs and delayed contract pricing remain exposures (item7; call_prepared; call_qa). Customer-specific products and services support its competitive position, but PPG operates in a market with global and regional rivals (item1).