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| CEO Gregory Poling opens trading the first day GCP Applied Technologies stock was listed on the Big Board. Upon the February 2015 decision to split the enterprise, directors designated Poling, then W.R. Grace president and chief operating officer, to lead the new entity spanning Grace Construction Products and Darex Packaging. |
A year after management outlined a proposed split into two public companies, W.R. Grace & Co. in Columbia, Md., completed the separation of its namesake business from a new entity, GCP Applied Technologies Inc. The latter was officially formed February 3 in a distribution of new GCP stock, at 1:1 ratio, to W.R. Grace shareholders. Cambridge, Mass.-based GCP Applied Technologies’ two global businesses, concrete admixture mainstay Grace Construction Products and Darex Packaging Technologies, have 2,800-plus employees in locations on six continents, and serve customers in more than 110 countries.
“As an independent company, GCP Applied Technologies will grow by focusing on quality products and services in the construction and packaging segments we serve,” says President and CEO Gregory Poling, citing as growth drivers, “a combination of new technologies, geographic expansion and complementary acquisitions that support our customers worldwide.” The day after the GCP stock issuance, he and colleagues assembled on the main trading floor balcony to ring New York Stock Exchange Opening Bell.
W.R. Grace now encompasses Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies operating segments. “We are as confident as ever that the separation will create value for our shareholders and sharpen strategic focus on our customers,” notes Chairman and CEO Fred Festa, acknowledging the Grace and GCP-bound employees “who worked so diligently to complete this complex process within the one year timeline we planned.”
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| GCP Applied Technologies’ launch on Wall Street dovetailed World of Concrete 2016 in Las Vegas, where the company unveiled new graphics and branding. A Kenworth T880-mounted Beck Industrial mixer, set for delivery to Ratliff Ready-Mix of Waco, Texas, anchored the booth. The truck bears GCP’s Verifi (right), an on-board system automating admixture dosing and mix adjustments for loads in transit. |