Graco Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is a multi-national manufacturing
company. We design, manufacture and market equipment used to pump, meter, mix
and dispense fluid and powder materials. Our equipment is used in construction,
automotive, mining, oil and natural gas, process, public works and other industries.
Graco is a Minnesota corporation and was incorporated in 1926.
We specialize in providing equipment solutions for difficult-to-handle materials
with high viscosities, abrasive or corrosive properties, and multiple component
materials that require precise ratio control. We aim to serve niche markets,
providing high customer value through product differentiation. Our products
enable customers to reduce their use of labor, material and energy, improve
quality and achieve environmental compliance.
We make significant investments in developing innovative, high quality products.
We strive to grow into new geographic markets by strategically adding commercial
resources and third party distribution in growing and emerging markets. We have
grown our third party distribution to have specialized experience in particular
end-user applications. We leverage our product technologies for new applications
and industries.
We also make targeted acquisitions to broaden our product offering, enhance
our capabilities in the end-user markets we serve and expand our manufacturing
and distribution base. In 2015, we completed a number of acquisitions in the
Industrial and Process segments and two acquisitions in early fiscal 2016. These
acquisitions provided new products, such as an expanded high pressure valve
line, ultra high purity diaphragm pumps and mortar pumps, as well as additional
channel partners and manufacturing capabilities.
We have particularly strong manufacturing, engineering and customer service
capabilities that enhance our ability to provide premium customer experience,
produce high quality and reliable products and drive ongoing cost savings.
Our investment in new products, targeted acquisitions and strong manufacturing,
engineering and customer service capabilities comprise our long-term growth
strategies, which we coordinate and drive across our geographic regions. Values
central to our identity - growth, product innovation, premium customer service,
quality and continuous improvement - are leveraged to integrate and expand the
capabilities of acquired businesses.
Each segment sells its products in North, Central and South America (the “Americas”),
Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”), and Asia Pacific. Sales
in the Americas represent approximately 59 percent of our Company’s total
sales. We provide marketing and product design in each of these geographic regions.
Our Company also provides application assistance to distributors and employs
sales personnel in each of these geographic regions.
We manufacture a majority of our products in the United States. We manufacture
some of our products in Switzerland (Industrial segment), the United Kingdom
(Process segment), the People’s Republic of China (“P.R.C.”)
(all segments), Belgium (all segments), Romania (Industrial segment) and Brazil
(Industrial segment). Our manufacturing is aligned with our business segments
and is co-located with product development to accelerate technology improvements
and improve our cost structure. We perform critical machining, assembly and
testing in-house for most of our products to control quality, improve response
time and maximize cost-effectiveness. We make our products in focused factories
and product cells. We source raw materials and components from suppliers around
the world.