100 years of touching lives

Stahl has always been the company that touches lives. For the past 100 years, our solutions have been the invisible force behind everyday materials – helping to protect what consumers hold dear by making essential items stronger, more durable, more attractive and more sustainable.

This commitment – to having a perceivable impact on the consumer experience – has been the one constant throughout nearly a century of expansion and evolution, leading us on a journey to become a world leader in speciality coatings for flexible materials.

Harry Stahl’s vision

The Stahl story begins in 1930 in Peabody, Massachusetts. This is where Harry Stahl, a local entrepreneur, introduced his new leather finishing solution: a simple yet effective tool that meant tanners no longer needed to invest time and money making their own chemicals. Before long, Harry and colleagues were supplying leather finishing chemicals and dyes to many of America’s leading tanneries, leaving them free to focus on growing their businesses.

Global expansion

Global demand for Stahl’s solutions grew rapidly after the Second World War. Building on his company's strong reputation and growing customer base, Harry set about expanding the business beyond the United States. From the late 1940s through to the 70s and 80s, Stahl was established as a global expert in high-performance coatings and finishes, supplying diverse organisations around the globe.

In 1990, we moved our international headquarters to the Netherlands – the start of an exciting move to diversify our speciality coatings portfolio. Stahl's growth accelerated in the 2000s, when we opened a manufacturing facility in China and introduced new innovations. With each new addition to our portfolio, we created more opportunities and more partnerships.

Three strong pillars for growth

More recently, strategic acquisitions have accelerated the diversification of our business and enabled us to consolidate leading positions in key markets and value chains.

In 2023, Stahl acquired the packaging coatings business, ISG, from the ICP Group. In 2024, we reinforced our position in this key market with the acquisition of Weilburger Graphics GmbH, a leading global provider of high-quality, sustainable solutions for the graphic arts and packaging industries.

The strategic expansion of our packaging coatings business gives us three strong pillars that will support our long-term growth: Performance Coatings, Leather Finishing and Packaging Coatings.

A focus on sustainability

From the start, our products have been engineered to provide peace of mind to our customers and end users. Over the years, as the needs of the planet and its communities have become more apparent, this objective has become intertwined with our sustainability ambitions – and our commitment to making a positive impact on people and the environment.

In 2011, Stahl joined the United Nations Global Compact, cementing our commitment to sustainable and socially responsible business practices. In 2021, we launched our ESG Roadmap to 2030, before achieving our first EcoVadis ‘Platinum’ rating the following year. More recently, we published firm near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-reduction targets, which were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Success through partnerships

Partnership and collaboration have become increasingly important strategic drivers, enabling us to amplify the positive impact of our work and contribute to a more responsible coatings value chain.

In 2014, we launched the Stahl Campus®, a growing network of global knowledge hubs promoting best practices across the supply chain. Meanwhile, we have continued to expand

our global presence, bringing us closer to our customers with new application laboratories in Brazil, India, China, Pakistan, Thailand and Japan. We also opened Centers of Excellence in China, the Netherlands, France, Mexico, India, Italy, the USA and Spain, with a new facility planned in Germany.

Co-creating the future

But this is just the first chapter of the Stahl story. As we approach our 100th anniversary, we remain fully committed to our purpose: Touching lives, for a better world.

And we can look forward with confidence to a future in which we continue to add real value as the world’s leading producer of speciality coatings for flexible materials. A future rich in new experiences for our customers and consumers – just as Harry Stahl would have wanted.