I have more than 18 years in the paint industry now with a couple different companies and I have never seen such a poorly run company especially at the store levels as PPG Paints. I was with Glidden when the PPG buy out happened and ever since then our location and market has become a shell of what it used to be. We have lost so many good people either due to poor "Upper Management" decisions or just because employees got fed up with the lack of direction, leadership and compensation in our market. We are one of the biggest markets in the company yet the company chose to close over half our stores but expect our customers to continue to buy from us. We continue to have numerous price increases which prices us out of the market and our reps and stores are micro managed way too much with all these needless reports and calls they expect us to make. How about just let these guys go out and sell paint and try to hold on to the few customers we have left. There is no direction with this company either...in one breath they say we are no longer focused on retail and DIY just commercial/industrial but then expect the stores to make all these OBS calls, stay open on holidays and Saturdays, which in most cases is a epic waste of time. We have people in so called "Leadership Team" roles that have no business being there and I feel the employees are not valued nor compensated nearly as much as they should be. I normally don't try to rock the boat because most times it goes in one ear and out the other and all it does is put you on the short list for their next chopping block cuts, which I am sure more are coming but I thought these things needed to be said. The moral is so low right now and I know so many people that are looking to just get out and that is a shame because all the good people are leaving and all the not so good people just keep getting promoted.
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Horrible company which is run by sycophants who have limited experience and an asinine business model. Colorado now has only 5 stores in this entire state. Shady and ineffective management who thrive on drama, with no ideas or solutions to achieve a greater market share. My regional and district managers were non communicative and only looked out for their own selfish interests. They continue to make threats of closing stores.... I say go for it. Most former customers have long moved on to SW. Sad but true. Avoid PPG!!!
I worked for SW, AkzoNobel and PPG. PPG was the worst company by a long shot. Not even close.
For those who thought it was bad back then, IT IS MUCH WORSE NOW. Ignorant id–ts at the top are clueless and pushing programs that don't work and won't work. Their zone picks are puppets who don't challenge out of fear. "Priorities" have never been this far off the mark. We've never seen any form of micro-management quite like this. March will bring true madness because dozens of top performers across the country will be resigning. No one will be in place in key field positions to hold things together. Very sad for workers who care...VO and JI MUST be ousted immediately!!! They have both stated publicly if workers "don't like it" they should leave. Well, they soon will and you will be f'd! id–tS.
PPG is the worst run company in the world and does not care about its people. All top management should fired.
Someone please use the Knoxville, TN. Market as a prime example. The PPG dealer was the largest PPG distributor and sold to corporate. While the buyout worked for a few years the end result has nearly come to a end. The corporate decisions forced the best people and market they had to finally leave and it will never be the same. Why did they leave ? Corporate decisions implemented then and they were smart enough to see where it was going . If you want to bring the stores back I would suggest bring the people back that understood how the paint business works. They had a regional sales manger that beat ever region and knew the paint business. He was the son of the original owner who was by far better than anyone PPG had and has now. People of that caliber will be the only way they survive. If they do at all. Check the store totals before the buy and compare them now in this market first and then go region by region and you will see the real issues. The numbers would astonish stockholders.
This guy is spot on
Cole is finally leaving, MUCH NEEDED and Thank God. Broom MUST be next. One worthless executive and an EMBARRASMENT to the business. She is destroying this business one hug at a time. GO! Please GO!
Broom came from sears. SEARS... let me say it again SEARS! She’s familiar with closing stores and a failing model. The hack and slash started last April. Wait until April comes around in 2019.
I left two years ago. Writing is on the wall get out now!
Automotive and Industrial will survive and they will break off AF very soon. PPG Paints has no model or direction. Every major market is acting independently still trying to find out what works best for them. Closing stores in an underdeveloped market in Chicago, to over saturating locations in the Dallas market is mind blowing.
Micromanaging from pricing and store operations to the point where the talent (not much left) have gone numb. The people who have experienced the 08’ restructure and still employed are hanging on to dear life because they fear that they cannot find another job because of their age. PPG knows this and modifies their compensation every two years. New blood coming out of college figure it out within a year or two and leave.
The competition (SW) doesn’t even respect PPG, that’s a serious problem. When they loose a customer they know they will be back and when they do they will pay a premium for basic customer support such as, in stock paint, store locations, hours, specfiied products and new innovations.
PPG “had” team members who would jump through flaming hoops to please there customers just to make a sale. SW has the support model where the customer would rather pay more for convience and knowing the customer service and sales knowledge was inferior to PPG.
If management in Cranberry doesn’t understand this or too naïve it’s pretty sad.
The best model was the Porter Paint model, they had the most loyal customers great formulations in their paints and had a higher internal cost and they got the price per gallon.
Good luck to the people who are still hanging on the end is unfortunately near.
Agree with pretty much everything here. Work in Cranberry and it's embarrassing how bad the field is treated. This isn't to bash everyone in corporate because there are some amazing people here but the management ranks are mostly filled with arrogant people who could give a damn about the business and are only here for themselves. There's an "in-club" the show and they are so out of touch with reality in the field. "Strategy" changes literally every other day. Everyone's also afraid to speak up because they know they'll be axed immediately if they do. New ideas from the field or from outside the in-club are not allowed. So much busy work across the business with no purpose or goal and no support from management on anything that matters. Culture of blame and backstabbing. There's a ton of fear after what happened last year and everyone's still holding their breath waiting for the other shoe to fall. Morale is horrible and trust is gone. Good luck to everyone trying to get out while they can. I'm sure management will be looking for more innocent people to blame for their latest round of bad decisions eventually.
It is absolutely a mess. I've never seen anything so bad. Our "leadership team" (term used loosely) possess no leadership skills. More importantly, they have no knowledge what the field does or what the field needs. They continue to make more and more inane decisions and surround themselves with "yes" people (look at the zone directors. ALL yes men afraid to rock the boat for the betterment of their teams). To your point, so many talented and caring people are looking to leave. We will be a shell of what we could have been. Meanwhile Cranberry is getting filled with more staff. More directors. More empire building. Cranberry doesn't sell paint or service customers. The overhead is growing and the people coming into these positions don't have ANY field experience. I'm sure they mean well, but they have no business telling the field what to do. Just about everything being directed to the field right now is busy work and anti-sales/anti-business growth. How can Cole, Broom, Moore, and Leyanaar look in the mirror? They all need to be fired tomorrow.