CoorsTek

CoorsTek, Inc.
Private
Industry Ceramics, Semiconductors, Armor & Defense, Automotive Components, Energy and Power Components, Medical Devices
Founded Golden, Colorado, U.S. (1910 (1910))
Founder Adolph Coors, Sr.
Headquarters Golden, CO, United States
Number of locations
61
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
John K. Coors, PhD, (CEO)
Products Engineered Ceramics
Services
  • Ceramic powder processing
  • Analytical laboratories
Revenue US$ 1.25 billion (2015)[1]
Owner The Coors family
Number of employees
5,900 (2015)
Divisions
  • Structural Ceramics
  • Electronic Ceramics
  • Vehicle & Personal Armor
Subsidiaries
  • C5 Medical Werks
  • DEW Engineering
  • EmiSense
  • SelectIon
  • CoorsTek Medical
  • CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals
Website coorstek.com

CoorsTek, Inc. is a privately owned manufacturer of engineered ceramics, semiconductor tooling, plastic tubing, medical devices and other industrial products. CoorsTek headquarters and primary factories are located in Golden, Colorado, USA, near the foothills west of Denver. The company is owned by a trust of the Coors family. The president and chairman is John K. Coors,[2] a great-grandson of founder and brewing magnate Adolph Coors, Sr..

History

Adolph Coors and John Herold

Rhineland-born Adolph Coors (1847–1929) opened the Colorado Glass Works in 1887 to manufacture beer bottles for his brewery, the Adolph Coors Brewing Company, west of Denver. In 1888, the glass works, incorporated as Coors, Binder & Co., was idled by a strike and never re-opened.[3] The Glass Works was leased to German-born John J. Herold in 1910, who incorporated the Herold China and Pottery Company on the site at 600 Ninth St in Golden.[4] Herold used clay from nearby mines to make dinnerware and heat-resistant porcelain ovenware under the trademark Herold Fireproof China. The now-abandoned clay pits form the western boundary of the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) campus. CSM professor Herman Fleck helped Herold perfect his glazing technique.[5] Adolph Coors became the majority stockholder and was elected to the board of directors of Herold China in 1912. John Herold resigned, and Adolph Coors Company acquired Herold China in 1914. Herold returned later in 1914 to manage the plant, but left permanently in 1915. CSM evaluated Fireproof China for industrial applications in 1914, and found it suitable.[3] The company began producing chemical porcelain in 1915 as a result of a World War I embargo on German imports. Adolph Coors’ second son, Herman Frederik Coors, was named manager in 1916. Herold China was renamed Coors Porcelain Company in 1920, and the trademark "Coors U.S.A." was first used.[6]

Rosebud china and Prohibition after WW1

After World War I, Coors Porcelain made fine china and cookware bearing the trademarks Rosebud, Glencoe Thermo-Porcelain, Coorado, Mello-Tone and others.[3] During Prohibition, the ceramic business was largely what kept the parent company afloat. The original factory site at 600 Ninth St in Golden was the only Coors Porcelain facility until the 1970s, and remained the company headquarters until a new facility was built northeast of Golden in the early 1990s. The 440,000 sq ft (41,000 m2) Ninth St plant consists of several adjoining buildings that occupy four square blocks, and is still CoorsTek’s largest manufacturing site. Herman Coors managed the company in the early days. Herman’s younger brother, Grover C. Coors, began the fledgling company’s foray into ceramic technology by inventing a tool for forming spark plug insulation in 1919.[7] Herman left in 1925 to start the H.F. Coors China Company, a manufacturer of dishes for restaurants and institutional use, in Inglewood, CA. The H.F. Coors Pottery's trademarks include Coorsite, Alox and Chefsware.[3]

Figure 1: CoorsTek ceramic products. All are glazed porcelain except C. A Fisher filtration funnel; B Buchner funnel; C 99.8% alumina crucible; D Desiccator plate; E Commemorative thimble-size stein for brewery visitors; F 95-mm diameter crucible rack.

Aluminum beer cans

In the 1950s, Coors Porcelain’s parent company investigated the possibility of replacing steel beverage cans with aluminum ones, as part of a closed-loop recycling system. The effort was the brainchild of W.K. "Bill" Coors, the second son of Adolph II.[8] A Porcelain warehouse at the corner of Ninth St and Washington Ave in Golden was selected to house the pilot plant for the aluminum can line.[9] The first aluminum beer can was produced at the site in January, 1959. B.L. "Bob" Mornin, a ceramic engineer at Coors Porcelain since 1954, was appointed manager of can production in 1963, and led it to profitability.[10] The can operation eventually outgrew the Porcelain building and moved into its present location east of the brewery in 1966.[10] Coors Brewing Company reorganized its can operations into a joint venture with the Ball Corporation in 2002, known as Rocky Mountain Metal Container LLC. CoorsTek began developing hot-pressed SiC-whisker-reinforced Al2O3 ceramic tooling for beverage can machinery in the 1990s.[11]

On January 22, 2009, the original Coors can plant was named an ASM Historical Landmark by the Board of Trustees of ASM International, for its role in ushering in the age of recyclable aluminum beverage containers.[12] The date marked the 50th anniversary of Coors' first aluminum can. The building is on the southwest corner of the CoorsTek complex at 600 Ninth St in Golden.

Ceramic technology and company growth after WW2

The company gradually diversified its lines of technical ceramics before and especially after World War II. Coors greatly expanded its product lines, reduced scrap and accelerated production with the aid of cold isostatic pressing in the 1940s, tape casting and hot isostatic pressing in the 1950s, and multilayer ceramic capacitors in the 1960s. High-alumina (85 to 99.9% Al2O3) ceramics replaced porcelain in many thermomechanical, electrical and chemical applications. Coors engineers Vlad Wolkodoff[13] and Bob Weaver invented fully dense, glass-free 99.5+% Al2O3 ceramics in 1964, useful for many applications where porcelain is deficient.[14] Growth in the 1970s enabled Coors to build an electronic ceramics plant east of Golden in 1970, and its first facility outside of Golden, an electronic substrate plant in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1975.[15] Coors made its first purchase of a competitor when it bought Wilbanks International Inc. (originally Far West Industrial Ceramics) of Hillsboro, Oregon, in 1973.[16] Another competitor, Alumina Ceramics Inc. of Benton, Arkansas, was acquired in 1976.[17] Coors began making silicon carbide, silicon nitride, spinel, zirconia and several other ceramic products by the mid-1980s.

Figure 2: CoorsTek ceramic products. A Porcelain pestle; B Porcelain mortar; C Glazed porcelain casserole; D Glazed porcelain 100-mm long boat; E TTZ (toughened zirconia) putter;[18] F 99.8% alumina tray. Scale: the coin between E & F is a U.S. quarter.

The Joe Coors era

Joseph "Joe" Coors, Sr. (1917–2003), third son of Adolph II, joined Porcelain in 1940.[19] He was promoted to president in 1946, and became a member of the board of directors and an executive of Adolph Coors Company as well. Joe was named an Honorary Member of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) in 1985.[20]

Coors Porcelain becomes Coors Ceramics

Coors Porcelain was renamed Coors Ceramics Company in 1986, shortly after Joseph Coors, Jr. (1942- ), succeeded R. Derald Whiting as president.[21] At the time, porcelain was a small part of the 12-plant, 2200-employee company's output. High-alumina ceramics were and remain the company's primary products. Joe Jr., a mathematician and quality engineer, had been at Wilbanks 1973-84 and was its president 1980-84, and the vice-president for quality at Coors Porcelain 1984-5 prior to his promotion.[22]

Chaired professor and ceramic research at CSM

Janet Coors, widow of Herman Coors, endowed the Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics (CCAC) at the Colorado School of Mines in 1988 with $2 million, and established the H.F. Coors Distinguished Professor of Ceramic Engineering chair.[23] Coors executive David G. Wirth, Jr., was appointed as the first director of CCAC. Dennis W. Readey left Ohio State University to become the first Coors Professor and succeeded Wirth as director of CCAC.[24] Readey, a Fellow of ACerS, served as president of ACerS in 1991-2, and was named a Distinguished Life Member of ACerS in 2002.[25] Upon his retirement, Readey was succeeded as Coors Professor by Nigel Sammes, and as director of CCAC by Ivar Reimanis. W. Grover Coors, a brother of CoorsTek president John Coors, earned his Ph.D. at CSM in 2001[26] and has been a research professor in CCAC.[27] John Coors earned his B.Sc. in chemical engineering at CSM in 1977, the first of eleven Coors family members to graduate from Mines as of 2014.[5]

CoorsTek endowed CSM with $26.9 million, the largest in Mines' history, for the construction of the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, in September 2014. The new 95,000 sq. ft. (8800 m2) building will be built on the site of the physics department, Meyer Hall. CoorsTek employed about 50 CSM alumni at the time of the announcement.[5], [28]

The Coors empire separates

Adolph Coors Company became a holding company in 1989, with Coors Brewing Company as its largest subsidiary. The non-brewing subsidiaries were spun off late in 1992 under a new holding company, ACX Technologies, Inc., with Bill Coors as chairman of both holding companies.[19] The key subsidiaries of ACX were Coors Ceramics Co.; Graphic Packaging Corporation, with Joe Jr.’s younger brother J.H. "Jeff" Coors as chairman and president; Golden Technologies Company (GTC), a collection of R&D projects headed by a former Wilbanks executive; and Golden Aluminum Company, with Joe Jr. as its interim president.[29] Most of the ceramics-related GTC projects were folded into Coors Ceramics, while others were sold to investors or shut down with the demise of GTC in the late 1990s. Golden Aluminum was sold to Alcoa in 1997, and is now an independent remelter and rolling mill in Fort Lupton, Colorado. Graphic Pkg. merged with Riverwood International Corp. in 2003 and moved its headquarters to Marietta, Georgia, with a plant in Golden, which supplied paperboard packaging for Coors beer. ACX and Adolph Coors Co. had many common stockholders including the Coors family, but were otherwise entirely independent of one another. Coors Ceramics Co. was no longer affiliated with the Coors brewery. Coors Ceramics' headquarters moved from Golden to a new building in an unincorporated area northeast of Golden.[30]

Acquisitions and diversification

In an effort to broaden its business beyond mostly structural and insulating ceramics, Coors Ceramics made several acquisitions in the late 1990s, especially of suppliers to the semiconductor industry. Coors acquired plastics manufacturer Tetrafluor Inc. of El Segundo, California, in August 1997 for $15.8 million. Coors bought precision machine shops Edwards Enterprises of Newark, California, and Precision Technologies of Livermore, California, in March 1998 for $18M and $22M, respectively. Coors acquired ceramic maker Doo Young Semitek Co., Ltd., of Kyungbook, South Korea, for $3.6M in December 1999. Coors purchased machine shop Liberty Machine Inc. of Fremont, California, for $4M in March 2000.[31] In 1993, Coors sold its ceramic subsidiaries in Ocean Springs, Mississippi and Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil.[29] In September 2013 CoorsTek purchased IMDS (Innovative Medical Device Solutions) for an undisclosed amount.

Coors Ceramics becomes CoorsTek

In 2000, ACX was dissolved and Coors Ceramics became an independent, publicly traded company under the name of CoorsTek, Inc.[32] Annual revenue was $334M and an operating loss of $32M was reported.[1] CoorsTek was traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol CRTK. Joe Jr. retired as chairman and president of CoorsTek in 2000, and was succeeded by his younger brother John.[33] Keystone Holdings LLC, a trust of the Coors family, bought the stock it did not already own, and took the company private once again in 2003.[34]

Saint-Gobain acquisition

CoorsTek signed an agreement in June 2010 to buy certain assets of the Advanced Ceramics division of the French conglomerate Saint-Gobain.[35],[36] The Advanced Ceramics division employed 1200 workers worldwide, and 500 at six North American sites, at the time. CoorsTek gained ownership of several longtime competing brands, such as Cerbec Si3N4 bearings, Solcera and Cerastat. The transaction was completed in January 2011, with CoorsTek assuming ownership of six plants in Europe; four in the USA; one each in Canada, Mexico and Brazil; and sales offices in Japan, China, Taiwan and Singapore. The acquisition gave CoorsTek a total of 44 facilities on four continents, and increased capabilities in SiC, Si3N4, mullite and steatite.[37] Compagnie de Saint-Gobain retained ownership of its 22 High-Performance Refractories, Lo-Mass®, Carborundum Abrasive Products and Hexoloy® SiC products business sites.

Covalent Materials Corp. acquisition

CoorsTek acquired Covalent Materials Corp., formerly Toshiba Ceramics Co., and its three factories in Japan in December 2014 for ~$450M, the largest acquisition in CoorsTek's history.[1] The transaction gave CoorsTek over 50 production facilities in 14 countries on four continents, with over 6,000 employees. Covalent began as Toyo Fire Brick Company in 1918 in Tokyo, and later became Toshiba Refractories Co. Toshiba Refractories merged with Toshiba Denko to become Toshiba Ceramics Co., Ltd., in 1968, with factories in Oguno, Yamagata; Hatano, Kanagawa; and Kariya, Aichi. Covalent’s product line includes crucibles, heating elements, refractory bricks, and components for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries, made of silicon carbide, boron carbide, alumina, graphite, yttria and silicon. Its trademarks include Cerasic, Sapphal, Exyria, Glassun, Neobone and Ceraphite.[38]

CoorsTek revenues increased to $1.25 billion since the Coors family-owned Keystone Trust bought all the stock in 2003. CoorsTek claims it has turned a net profit every single quarter since then. Forbes magazine estimated that CoorsTek's cash flow reached $340 million in 2015. CoorsTek was worth an estimated $2.5 billion in 2015, about $200M more than the family’s 16% stake in the brewery.[1]

Products and services

Subsidiaries

Facility in Hillsboro, Oregon

Subsidiaries and Outlying Operations

Benton, AR Formerly Alumina Ceramics, Inc.[39]
El Segundo, Fremont and Ventura, CA Formerly Tetrafluor, Inc., et al.
Vista, CA Formerly BAE Systems[40]
Arvada, CO CoorsTek Fluorochemicals; formerly Boulder Ionics
Grand Junction, CO C5 Medical Werks
Grand Junction, CO Thick-film substrates
Oklahoma City, OK Formerly RI Ceramic Co. of Norman, OK
Tulsa, OK Tulsa Machine Works & Manufacturing
Hillsboro, OR Formerly Wilbanks International, Inc.
Oak Ridge, TN Formerly Coors Technical Ceramics Co.[41]
Austin, Houston and Odessa, TX Petrochemical, oil and gas hardware
Fort Worth, TX CoorsTek Medical LLC[42]
Salt Lake City, UT Ceramatec, Inc.[43]
Red Deer, AB, Canada Petrochemical, oil and gas hardware
Cambridge, ON, Canada BLS Textiles, Inc.[44]
London, ON, Canada Formerly Advance Manufacturing Technologies ULC (AMT)[45]
Ottawa, ON, Canada DEW Engineering and Development Ltd.[46]
Paris, ON, Canada CoorsTek Advanced Ceramics Hamilton ULC, foundry filters, successor of Hamilton Potteries
Tampere, Finland CoorsTek Sensors; formerly Pegasor, Oy
Bindlach, Bavaria, Germany ANCeram GmbH & Co. KG[47][48]
Oguno, Yamagata; Hatano, Kanagawa; and Kariya, Aichi, Japan Formerly Covalent Materials Corp., Toshiba Ceramics Co.[38]
Gumi City, Korea CoorsTek Korea[49]
Kyungbook, Korea Formerly Doo Young Semitek Co., Ltd.
Crewe, Cheshire, England, UK Dynamic-Ceramic Ltd.[50]
Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, UK Formerly VZS-Seagoe[51]
Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, UK Thick- and thin-film substrates[52]

Former subsidiaries

Alpha Optical Systems Inc. Ocean Springs, MS
Ceram[53],[54] El Cajon, CA
Ceramicon Designs Golden, CO
Cercom, Inc.[55] Vista, CA
Coban Industrial Ltda. Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
Coors Biomedical Co. Lakewood, CO
Coors Ceramics Asia-Pacific Singapore
Coors Components, Inc.[56] Broomfield, CO
Coors Electronic Package Co.[57] Chattanooga, TN
Coors Optical Systems Co.[58] Golden, CO
Humphreys Investment Co. Denver, CO
MicroLithics Corp. Golden, CO
Resistant Materials Systems, Inc./Coors Wear Products, Inc.[59] Lawrence, PA
Royal Worcester Industrial Ceramics, Ltd. Tonyrefail, Wales

Presidents

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 D. Alexander, "Inside The Coors Family's Secretive Ceramics Business Worth Billions," Forbes, 23 Nov 2015.
  2. "Profiles of Leadership," Ceramic Industry, December 1, 2005.
  3. 1 2 3 4 R.H. Schneider, Coors Rosebud Pottery, First Edition, Busche-Waugh-Henry Publications, 1984, ISBN 0-931511-01-1, p 10-19.
  4. Chemical Porcelain Ware by Coors: The Evolution of a Lump of Clay, Coors Porcelain Co., 1935, p 2-3.
  5. 1 2 3 L. Marshall, "Golden Synergy," Mines (CSM Alumni magazine), Vol. 104, #3, Fall 2014, p 14-19.
  6. "Coors Ceramics, A Diverse Operation in the ‘90s," Ceramic Industry, Oct 1994, p 47-51.
  7. G.C. Coors, "Apparatus for Forming Spark-Plug Insulators," US Patent No. 1 362 926, Dec 1920.
  8. F.L. Church, "Man of the Year: William K. Coors," Modern Metals, January 1960, p 88–98.
  9. G. Walker, "Environmental Stewardship Amid Rapid Growth at CoorsTek," American Ceramic Society Bulletin, V85 #5, May 2008, p 26-29.
  10. 1 2 B.M. Conny, A Catalyst for Change, A. Coors Co., 1990, p 39 & 51-53.
  11. A. Ezis & J.A. Rubin, "Hot Pressing," Engineered Materials Handbook, Volume 4: Ceramics and Glasses, ASM International, 1991, p 186-193, ISBN 0-87170-282-7.
  12. G. Krauss, "CoorsTek Honored as Historical Landmark of ASM International," Advanced Materials & Processes, V167 #3, Mar 2009, p 49-50.
  13. Ceramic Bulletin, V48, #4, Apr 1969, p 373.
  14. V.E. Wolkodoff & R.E. Weaver, "Alumina Ceramic," US Patent No. 3 377 176, Apr 1968.
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  16. "Coors Acquires Ceramic Firm," Ceramic Industry, Vol 100, #4, Apr 1973, p 20.
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  24. Ceramic Bulletin, V68, #6, Jun 1989, p 1149.
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  26. W.G. Coors, "Electrode/electrolyte interface characterization in yttrium-doped BaCeO3 by impedance spectroscopy," Ph.D. Thesis, D.W. Readey, Advisor, Colorado School of Mines, 1 Mar 2001.
  27. Dept of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, cited 17 Sep 2009.
  28. S. Raabe, "Golden's CoorsTek gives biggest gift ever to Colorado School of Mines," The Denver Post, 25 Sep 2014.
  29. 1 2 "1993 Annual Report," ACX Technologies, Inc., p 24 & 33.
  30. "Corporate Member Profiles," Ceramic Bulletin, V67, #11, Nov 1988, p 1745.
  31. Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (SEC annual stock report), CoorsTek, Inc., 2000.
  32. C. Grahl, "Investing in Ceramics - CoorsTek: A Strong Player in High-Tech Markets," Ceramic Industry, June 1, 2001.
  33. "Coors Announces His Retirement," Denver Business Journal, 10 Oct 2000.
  34. "CoorsTek Signs Merger Agreement with Keystone," Ceramic Industry, January 8, 2003.
  35. "CoorsTek to Acquire Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics," Ceramic Bulletin, Vol 89, #6, Aug 2010, p 3.
  36. "CoorsTek Enters Agreement to Acquire Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics," Ceramic Industry, 29 June 2010.
  37. "CoorsTek Completes Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics Acquisition," Ceramic Industry, 11 January 2011.
  38. 1 2 "CoorsTek to Acquire Covalent Materials Corp.," Ceramic Industry, December 10, 2014.
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  40. "CoorsTek Acquires BAE Systems’ Advanced Ceramics Business," Ceramic Industry, September 21, 2011.
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  42. "CoorsTek Medical Expands Medical-Grade Ceramic Production Capacity," Ceramic Industry, August 27, 2015.
  43. J.P. Hasler, "The Key to the Battery-Powered House: Q&A with Ceramatec," Popular Mechanics, October 20, 2009.
  44. "CoorsTek Acquires Ballistic Door Panel Producer BLS Textiles," Ceramic Industry, June 9, 2015.
  45. CoorsTek Engineered Metals Accessed 2015-09-14.
  46. "CoorsTek Acquires DEW Engineering and Development," Ceramic Industry, June 12, 2008.
  47. "CoorsTek Purchases ANCeram," Ceramic Industry, May 9, 2012
  48. "Briefs," Advanced Materials & Processes, Vol. 170, No. 6, June 2012, p 6.
  49. "CoorsTek Expands Korean Facility," Ceramic Industry, August 18, 2003.
  50. "CoorsTek Acquires Dynamic-Ceramic," Ceramic Industry, July 2, 2013.
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  57. "CoorsTek Signs Letter of Intent for Sale of Chattanooga Plant," Ceramic Industry, October 16, 2001.
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  59. "Coors Ceramics Acquires RMS," Ceramic Bulletin, V67, #6, June 1988, p 954.
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