A Century in the Coatings Business
History of Passonno Paints

In 1920, Fred Passonno began working in a small paint store in Troy, NY before joining the Benjamin Moore Company of New York as manager of Eastern Regional Sales. After a transfer to Cleveland, he became General Manager of Benjamin Moore’s Midwest Division, where he obtained the experience required to operate a paint factory. In 1926, Fred formed the Passonno Hutcheon Company, with manufacturing facilities in Cleveland, OH; Troy, NY; and Boston MA, and sold paint under the OLO (Old Linseed Oil) label. Shortly thereafter, Fred and his three sons purchased the James Roy Woolen Mill, located on the banks of the Hudson River in Watervliet, NY, where they began manufacturing paint under the Passonno Paints label.

As the saying goes, to make good butter cookies, you need to use enough quality butter. Since its beginning, Passonno Paints has followed this philosophy in making high-quality surface coatings, at first in small batches and then in high-capacity tanks and mixers. As the company grew, it began to produce oil and latex paints in 1,000-gallon batches. As technology changed, the company devoted its research and development to formulas incorporating 100% acrylic latex into its products and began creating long-lasting paints that were vastly superior to the old linseed oil paints.

During the 1970s, DuPont approached Passonno Paints to distribute the technical, multi-component epoxy and urethane coatings that were part of Dupont’s Performance Coatings business, which would later be sold and re-branded. Since then, we have been training employees in the highly technical aspects of industrial coatings and partnering with our clients to supply them with lasting asset protecting solutions for their business. From its initial partnership with DuPont, Passonno Paints has grown to become one of the largest suppliers of industrial coatings to manufacturers, contractors, and commercial customers in the Capital Region.