When the bankruptcy was completed in 2006, all creditors were repaid in full and USG shareholders retained equity in the company. The company's operations remained healthy and profitable while it was in Chapter 11. Asbestos was a minor ingredient in some specialty products that the company had stopped selling almost 40 years earlier, in the 1970s. In 2001, the company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to resolve legacy asbestos lawsuits. Other USG subsidiaries at the time included Alabaster Assurance Company, CGC, Donn Products, Exploracion de Yeso, Grupo Yeso, Gypsum Engineering, H & B Gypsum, L&W Supply, La Mirada Products Co., Inc, Red Top Technology, and Yeso Panamericano. the holding company for Beadex (a competing joint compound manufacturer) and Synkoloid. Other existing operations were substantially rebuilt or modernized, including the wallboard manufacturing plant in East Chicago, Indiana. In the mid- to late-1990s, the company invested in a significant expansion of its manufacturing network, adding new high-speed wallboard manufacturing operations in Rainier, OR, Bridgeport, AL, and Aliquippa, PA. On January 1, 1985, USG Corporation was formed as a holding company - a reverse merger in which United States Gypsum Company became one of just nine operating subsidiaries. Recession and its effect on the bottom line dominated the 1980s and led to a restructuring of the company. The 1950s and 1960s saw expansion into Mexico and other international markets. The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair featured buildings made almost entirely out of SHEETROCK panels, which led to the brand's first major advertising campaign. Originally called Adamant Panel Board, the product became known as Sheetrock in 1917.īy the 1930s, the company's policy of diffusion of manufacturing facilities, vertical integration and product diversification allowed it to operate profitably every year during the Great Depression. By 1917, a new manufacturing process produced boards with a single layer of plaster and paper that could be joined flush along a wall with a relatively smooth surface. In 1909, USG purchased the Sackett Plaster Board Company, inventor of Sackett Board, which was a panel made of multiple layers of plaster and paper. The new company combined the operations of 37 mining and calcining plants producing agricultural and construction plaster. On December 27, 1901, 30 gypsum and plaster companies merged to form the United States Gypsum Company, resulting in the creation of the first nationwide gypsum company in the United States. Because gypsum was plentiful, and available at a relatively low price, and because the manufacturing process was so simple, new firms flooded and fragmented the market, placing constant downward pressure on prices. In the 1890s, gypsum manufacturers perfected a method of strengthening plaster by adding a retarder, which controlled the setting time, thus creating a viable competitor to traditional lime plaster. In 2020, it was referenced in the movie Nomadland. In June 2018, USG entered into an agreement to be purchased by the German building materials company Knauf. In December 2013, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway became the largest shareholder in the company (holding roughly 30%) when it converted USG convertible notes it had acquired in 2008 to common stock.
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