IT ALL STARTED WITH THE SHEPHERD CHEMICAL COMPANY.
The founder of the company, Lee Shepherd, began his career with a degree in chemistry from Case Institute of Technology. He worked at industry leading companies in the growing chemical industry, through which he gained the skill and confidence to start his own enterprise. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to establish his career in his hometown, he purchased a plot of land in Norwood, Ohio and constructed the original manufacturing facility in 1916.
Shepherd's early products included lubricant additives for use in Model T Ford planetary transmissions.
 In the late 1920's, the founder's son, John F Shepherd, joined the company and began a business for manufacturing coloring oxides for use in porcelain enamel applications. His son, John, a ceramic engineer guided by the same entrepreneurial spirit, expanded the business into new markets such as architectural coatings. Through its focus on quality and customer satisfaction, the business grew to a standalone company in 1980 – The Shepherd Color Company. It is now one of the world's leading suppliers of complex inorganic color pigments.
At the turn of the millennium, consolidation within industries was rampant and was creating opportunities in the marketplace. This consolidation was also occurring in the glass enamel market, in which Shepherd occupied a key supply chain position. In 2003, Shepherd capitalized on the opportunity by acquiring the glass enamel business of General Color and Chemical, a family-owned Ohio company, and creating Glass Coatings & Concepts. A manufacturing plant was set up in Monroe, Ohio and GCC began producing and supplying enamels from this site soon after.
Throughout our technical and commercial efforts, the hallmarks of quality and character continue to guide the company's philosophy towards its customers, employees and business partners.
In the decade since its establishment, GCC has attained leading positions in the market segments it has targeted and continues to grow – in accordance with the same entrepreneurial spirit of our original founder, Lee Shepherd, and his three generations of successors in the Shepherd family.
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