PAINT CHAINS MERGE
By Adnews Staff
Two Canadian home decorating rivals have joined forces to battle invading competitors. Color Your World of Toronto and St. Clair Paint and Wallpaper of Concord, Ont. are merging to form a chain of 447 retail outlets with sales of about $250 million. Plans for the new company, to be called St. Clair Paint & Wallpaper Corp., include boosting paint production, opening 50 new stores per year and exporting to the U.S. The two companies have decided to stop fighting each other and join forces to take on U.S. retailers who are increasingly crossing the border into Canada. The merged firm will continue to operate as two independent chains. Color Your World president Stan Newman will be chairman and CEO of the new company, while St. Clair president and COO Jeffrey Liwin will hold on to his titles. Advertising for Color Your World is done by Bates O'Rourke of Toronto, while Gee, Jeffery & Partners Advertising of Toronto creates ads for St. Clair. Together, the chains have about 15% of the $1.6-billion paint and wallpaper market in Canada. The merged firm will be publicly traded. CIBC Wood Gundy Capital and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, both shareholders of privately-held Color Your World, will each control 24.5% of the voting shares of the new company. The other large shareholder will be the Litwin family, with 32% of the voting shares. The Litwins hold all the voting stock in publicly traded St. Clair.