HISTORY OF THE FRANKLIN PAINT COMPANY

On March 23, 1946 Maurice S. Herbert and Edward A. Monier signed an "Agreement of Partnership", under the firm name of The Franklin Paint Company.  They were both WWII "Veterans with a Vision". The partners secured a small bank loan and purchased an old 5,000 square foot woolen textile mill in Franklin, Massachusetts. They hired three employees and their journey began.

The small company started out manufacturing house and traffic paint, but soon realized they could not compete with the "big" companies in the house paint market, but were confident they could compete in the traffic paint market. They were both more than qualified for such an endeavor. Ed Monier was a Civil Engineer graduate of Tufts College. Maurice Herbert had earned a Chemistry degree from MIT, and had worked at Krebs Division of DuPont for seven years doing paint pigment testing and research.

They had quickly outgrown the small plant, so in 1960, they moved the company across town to the 50,000 square foot facility where it currently resides. It was then, in the early 1960's when Franklin Paint added Field Marking Paint to their production line.

The 1970's was a difficult decade for Franklin Paint. In 1975, the company suffered a severe loss to their paint inventory in a seven alarm fire, that was fortunately confined to the machine shop and one section of the plant. It took 30 men and 11 pieces of equipment more than three hours to bring the blaze under control. Damages were in excess of $250,000. Although it took several weeks to clean up and repair, Franklin Paint never lost one day of production.

An even harder blow was to come in 1977, with the sudden death of co-founder, partner and friend Ed Monier. A thirty-one year partnership had suddenly come to an end, but the dreams and vision of Maurice Herbert did not. It was at this point that he brought his sons into the business.

The 1990's once again brought about many changes for the company. Realizing that waterborne traffic paints were rapidly replacing oil-based products, substantial investments were made in production equipment in order to stay competitive. This also led to the implementation of the 'Equipment Division' in 1995 which was spearheaded by George Brophy. This was also the decade that "Mr. Herbert", (as he was respectfully referred to) who was well into his eighties, decided it was time to retire. He moved to New Hampshire with his wife Maryan and remained the CEO of the firm, contacting the office daily to get his sales reports and simply to ask "What's cookin'?"

The new millennium brought with it exceptional growth within the company. Within six decades, The Franklin Paint Company now employs over 30 people, with sales representatives in all six New England states, as well as New York and New Jersey. The small company continues to flourish, far beyond the dreams of those two WWII Veterans of 1946. With the passing of Mr. Herbert in 2007 at the age of 99 and that of George Brophy in 2009, Franklin Paint lost two icons in as many years. Fortunately, through the hard work and dedication of its  employees, it shall continue to be like the paint it produces..."As durable as the hills of Old New England".