Koppers Company, Inc.
founded 1907
At the onset of World War I, Koppers answered the wartime demand for coke by expanding their coke production at an average pace of adding one complete coke plant every 60 days. Recognizing the value of innovation in business, Koppers established a research division in 1915. While assuaging the nation’s need for coke, H. B. Rust and other Koppers administrators also recognized an opportunity to expand into the coal, gas, chemical and public-utility industries. Throughout the course of this expansion, Koppers supplied gas from their coke plants to various cities, including New York, New Haven, Montreal, St. Paul, Philadelphia, and Chicago. In addition, Koppers acquired coal mines to supply their plants, purchased shares in railroad companies that transported their coal, and bought a metal-fabricating company to fill their industrial equipment needs. It was during this period of diversification that Koppers began to develop tar refining and tar products, wood preserving, plastics and chemical industries as an offshoot of their established coke production functions.
With the Second World War came an unprecedented demand of basic coal chemicals and chemically-derived products. From this demand arose Koppers’ exploration into rubber and plastics production throughout the 1940s and 1950s, which stimulate production of chemicals such as styrene, polystyrene, polyethylene, and the coal-petroleum chemical, ethylbenzene. In addition to rubbers and plastics, Koppers also extended itself into the dye industry with the acquisition of Aniline Products Company and its plant in Lock Haven, Pa. in 1955. Koppers continued to expand its lucrative work in chemicals and plastics throughout the 1950s and 1960s in the form of expanded industrial chemical, resin, and coatings production. Throughout the 1970s, Koppers stimulated production of road-paving chemicals while also becoming invested in genetic engineering. Koppers consolidated its various industrial pursuits in the 1980s which included selling off its Engineered Product division, its wood-laminating business, and some of its coke plants. In addition, Koppers established a subsidiary referred to as Keystone Environmental Services in 1986 to manage and address internal environmental concerns while also marketing its environmental technology to other industries.
In 1988, a controlling stake in Koppers was acquired by Beazer, a British conglomerate, for 1.81 billion dollars. While Koppers’ headquarters remained in Pittsburgh, Beazer sold the company’s chemical and allied products division. In 2013, Koppers was engaged in producing carbon materials and chemicals as well as railroad and utility products. It maintained facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, China and South Africa
