United States. PPG recently held its annual shareholder meeting in Pittsburgh, where President and Chief Executive Officer Michael H. McGarry reviewed the company's continued strategic progress and highlighted its strong financial performance.
"PPG performed strongly in 2017 and continued to strengthen our position as a global leader in the paints and coatings industry," said McGarry. "In a full year, our sales from continuing operations were approximately $14.8 billion, more than 3 percent more than the prior year. We also continue our legacy of returning cash to shareholders, with more than $1.2 billion returned in 2017 through dividends and share buybacks."
At the meeting, McGarry highlighted several strategic actions taken by PPG to make the company stronger and more resilient. This included acquisitions of The Crown Group, a leading provider of coating services; Deutek, a Romanian leader in architectural cladding; and Futian, an auto repainting company based in southern China.
In addition, McGarry noted that the company completed its multi-year portfolio transformation with the sale of PPG's U.S. fiberglass business, the company's last non-core business. He also highlighted PPG's continued focus on new product development, which included nearly $500 million in research and development investment in 2017.
McGarry discussed several key sustainability and social responsibility achievements in 2017, including:
- Continuously improved safety performance;
- Reduced energy intensity by 22 percent, waste intensity by 4 percent and global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent;
- It achieved 32 percent of sales of products with sustainable advantages;
- Met a number of environmental targets ahead of the 2020 targets and developed aggressive new 2025 sustainability targets;
- Invested more than $10.5 million in 2017, supporting hundreds of organizations in 29 countries; and
- The growth of PPG's COLORFUL COMMUNITIES ™ initiative continued. PPG employees, customers and partners have now completed more than 125 projects, where they have improved, protected and beautified communities around the world through the use of our products. These projects in more than 23 countries have had a positive impact on more than 4 million people.
