About Estes’
Estes is a family-owned company spanning multiple generations and industries.
Estes Co. is a family-owned company that specializes in manufacturing color coated and specialized aggregates for multiple industries. We serve and support the aquatic community, pool plasters, resinous floor coating specialists, grout manufacturers and many more. We offer custom toll blending services on request. We have been coating aggregates since 1968, giving us the experience and knowledge to make the best products available. Our goal is to provide unmatched customer experience with the highest quality products.
The Estes Story
Six Generations of Manufacturing Excellence
The beginning, The First Generation
in 1847 Elihu Beach Estes started a company that sourced and resold a special black sand found in the upper Lake Champlain region of New York. He found the black sand made a very good Blotting Sand, used to soak up access ink in old hand written document. This black sand brought about two new product, black sign painters smalt used in old fashioned signs with gold lettering and a wood shaker to dispense the blotting sand. They then expanded into specialty wood boxes which were used to package pharmaceuticals in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Estes & Sons, The Second Generation
Elihu's son Webster started with company in the 1870's. He saw the Potential in both the smalt and wood box business and developed both, dramatically. by the 1890's, EB Estes & Sons was the primary pillbox supplier in the world. , with office in New York, Europe and Australia. During this time the, the smalt business, though much smaller, developed as well, with a hose of colors and effects adding to the basic black product line.
A New Name, The Third Generation
Clifford W. Estes entered the business around 1912. at this time, EB Estes & Sons had many factories in the US and Europe. In 1924 Clifford W. moved to New York to the companies headquarters. Turmoil soon stuck as Webster unexpectedly died, the Great Depression began and an unforeseen shift in packaging made wooden containers obsolete. Clifford W. had to sell the wood factories and retreat to the much smaller colored sign smalt business. It was at this time the business name changed to the Clifford W. Estes Company. Clifford W. struggled as did most of America during the Great Depression.
The Fourth Generation And Beyond
by 1950, Clifford's son Frank worked for the company, while his other sons Elihu and Cliff Jr. worked part time. Frank realized the decline in sign painters smalt. With a young family to provide for he searched for a new use for the color granules. A friend suggested colored aquarium gravel. It was a novel idea at the time, however, it was the right product at the right time. During this time, a new management team was formed between Frank Estes, his brother Clifford Estes Jr. and Dave Minasian. These three worked tirelessly to pioneer this new product. by 1970, the company was the undisputed leader in aquarium gravel. a position it has held to this day.
in the 1970's, Estes' began expanding it's products with Flooring Quartz, Art Sand, Coated Natural Gavel and many more specialty aggregates. Estes also opened it's first remote manufacturing site in Staley, North Carolina. Finally, the 70's saw the entry of the fifth generation of Estes into the business with Frank's son Steve Estes joining the company in 1978. Clifford Jr.'s son Doug Estes would later join the business in 1985. in the 90's, a new management team was created with Steve Estes, Doug Estes and Pete Osborn. Pete further developed products to include ceramic coated quartz-Ceramiquartz, Grout Sand, Colored Flakes and many more specialty aggregate products. Together, Steve Estes Doug Estes and Pete Osborn were able to expand and compete in the market place, brining the company to prosperity, once again.
Today, Doug's children are all involved in the company, Six generations later, Elihu B. Estes’s small dream has risen to national prominence. We didn’t stumble into the title of Leaders in Color, We earned it.
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The Estes Values
The Estes Company is one with principles.
You don’t survive 30 U.S. presidents without something to stand on. It’s these values which have allowed us to navigate countless wars and the Great Depression. It’s these principles that will get us through whatever comes next.
The world has changed quite a bit since the time we were founded. In fact, we have too. Most things do change. Yet others don’t. Our drive to provide the highest quality service is one of the latter.
As a company, we are blessed because we bless others.