The Sherwin-Williams Company has held a ground-breaking ceremony to signal the official start of construction of its new global Research and Development Centre in the USA.
Part of the Building Our Future project, the 600,000 square-foot (55,700 square-metre) facility in Brecksville, Ohio, will bring chemists, engineers, technicians and support teams together in a “state-of-the-art” hub for innovation and development of the company’s future products and services. The centre will support product development, coatings research, colour technology and process engineering.
“This is a monumental day for our organisation,” said John Morikis, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sherwin-Williams. “This new R&D Centre will be the global innovation epicentre for creating solutions that solve our customers’ problems, as well as a key to us to retaining and attracting top talent. We’re also celebrating the broad and diverse group of companies and individuals that will be working on this project, along with the ongoing impact the project will have on the community and region for years to come. And we’re proud to be building it right here in North-East Ohio, our home for more than 155 years.”
Sherwin-Williams said the Building Our Future project includes a new global headquarters in downtown Cleveland, which will be approximately one million square feet (92,900 square metres) in size. The company plans to invest a minimum of US$600 million ($800 million) to build the headquarters and R&D facility.
Together, the two facilities will house more than 3500 employees with room to accommodate future growth. Sherwin-Williams estimates it will add a minimum of 400 jobs at these facilities over time, an increase of 11 per cent to the company’s current local workforce. Many of these jobs will be for professional staff, engineers and chemists. The R&D Centre is also projected to generate 3000 construction jobs.