Leading paint and coatings maker The Valspar Corporation (VAL) has extended its retail paint program named as the Valspar Pro program with Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW), to meet the needs of the professional painters.
The Valspar Pro program includes Valspar-branded professional grade products in multiple formulations and finishes that simplify paint selection and deliver durable performance as per the needs of professional painters. Valspar Pro program also extends its in-store support through custom tinting and color matching services, small batch mixing along with direct shipping, volume and value pricing.
Valspar expects the Valspar Pro program to offer it significant opportunity as the professional paint business holds more than 50% of the U.S. architectural paint market. Valspar, through this new retail paint program, expects to reach more than 1,700 Lowe’s retail locations.
The new retail paint program, specially designed with easy application, uniform appearance, consistent hide, reliable touch-up and factory tinting, will benefit the professional painters through reduction of time consumption on the job site and delivery of high quality finished project.
Valspar Pro program is also supported with a new mobile web application at www.valsparpro.com. The application provides all the necessary information and application advice on various formulations and finishes.
Valspar Pro program was launched officially on Mar 25 in Lowe’s stores featuring “Pro Challenge”, which is a series of more than 300 events taking place in various Lowe’s retail locations throughout the U.S.
Valspar, which is among the prominent paints companies along with The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) and RPM International Inc. (RPM), released its first-quarter 2013 results in Feb 2013. The results were disappointing as both revenues and adjusted earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimates on weak market conditions. Valspar cut its earnings forecast for fiscal 2013 citing a soft demand environment across some overseas markets.
Valspar has a strong pipeline of new products and significant opportunities for share gains in both its Paint and Coatings segments globally. Valspar should also benefit from new business wins and restructuring actions while maintaining its operational and pricing discipline.
However, cost pressures associated with raw material inflation remains a concern. Moreover, weakness in the residential housing market in Australia may continue to hurt paint sales going forward.
Valspar currently carries a short-term (1 to 3 months) Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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