We Conducted a Pleasant Interview with Mr. Philippe Godbil
Founded in 1926, Graco today offers products and equipment to many different industries. In our interview, Graco Product Marketing Manager Industrial Division, Mr. Philippe Godbil answered our questions. Godbil gave information about Graco’s products and technologies, especially for the Coating and Surface Treatment industries.
Could you please briefly tell us about your educational and professional background?
Worked for 17 years in Automotive Tier 1 as Paint robot programmer and paint setting engineer, started in Graco as Application Engineer, and moved on to Product Management.
Could you please give information about Graco’s history and milestones? What’s the current structure of Graco today?
Graco was founded by the Gray brothers in 1926, we started out as a local family business specialized in Lubrication and evolved to a global company with 3500 employees. In the ’40s the Industrial Equipment Division was formed and Graco took on a course that would take us far from our “local business” roots. Expanding to the International Market Graco reached a year after year growth milestones during the following years. Midway through the ’80s, we listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the ’90s Graco expanded the Technical Center for product development in Minneapolis, Installed a European headquarters and a wordclass manufacturing and distribution facility in Minnesota. From the 2000s Graco grew through several strategic acquisitions and kept investing heavily in capacity, opening a new facility in China and expanding operations in the US. In the 2010s Graco achieved a major milestone surpassing 1 Billion in revenue, Graco made also significant acquisitions that opened new opportunities in niche markets and launched a major business unit dedicated to Oil and Natural gas markets.
To which industries and with what kind of products does Graco mainly serve? Could you please give information about Graco’s products, brands and services, especially in the field of coatings & surface technologies?
Graco serves a whole range of Industries in the coatings & surface technologies from General Industry to building & construction to Automotive Manufacturing. We provide machinery for pumping, mixing and dosing, paint application and all what is related to those. In that range we can find multiple brands like GEMA, Sharpe, QED and White Knight under the Graco umbrella.
Could you please tell about your domestic and international sales activities? To which regions and what kind of products does Graco mainly sell?
Graco has headquarters in Minneapolis, USA; Belgium, Europe; Shanghai, China and Porte Alegre, Brazil. We serve customers in over 100 countries across six continents for all
divisions.
Could you please give information about Graco’s innovation and R&D studies? Do you have any projects that were developed in the context of university-industry cooperation?
Graco continues to grow by investing in new products, transferring our technology into new markets and applications. We work together with Paint Manufacturers, OEM’s, etc, for validation purposes, continuous improvement, and development.
Could you give information about Graco’s environmental policy and sustainability approach? What kind of works and studies are performed in the area of worker health and safety?
Graco Strives to advance sustainability initiatives, we only have 1 world, and we need to take good care of it to sustain the future of our business. Our environmental policy is
straightforward, we strive to follow all applicable environmental laws and make improvements that make sense for the future of our business and the communities where we work. Deeply ingrained in the Graco organization is our be lief that facts should rule our decision-making processes, the facts tell us the future relies on sustainable practices, we will do our part to protect the earth for the future of our business, we track our air emissions, waste generation, water use, wastewater discharges, and energy use.
2 of our larger factories in the US are certified to ISO14001, employees participate in environmental and sustainability initiatives through “Green Teams” and Graco’s “Continuous
Improvement Program”. Efficient products use less of the Earth’s resources, and we design new products accordingly. We consistently pursue research and development to design
products that are recyclable, save energy and materials, and increase efficiency. We’ve worked to expand our lines of electric operated and battery-driven products to reduce
emissions related to energy consumption, and many of our products now use energy efficient brushless motor technology. Graco is committed to providing a safe working environment for employees and made significant investments in safety best practices. Through our health, wellness and safety program, we weave our commitment to safety and employee wellbeing into our company culture, providing education to promote wellness and reduction of injuries. As a result Graco has been named numerous times by Fortune magazine as a “Great Place to Work in Manufacturing and Production”.
What are the priority criteria of Graco when creating investment plans? Does Graco have any investment plans for the near and far future?
Graco strives to be the industry’s highest-quality manufacturer of fluid handling products cutting across several markets, our focus on innovation results in products that lead with advanced features, pioneering design, and high performance. As a result, Graco spends more on New Product Development as a percentage of our revenues than any of our Peers.
