Owens Corning

Owens Corning is a publicly listed US building-materials company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. It began in 1935 as a joint venture between the glassmakers Owens-Illinois and Corning Glass Works to develop glass fibre, and became a separate company in 1938. Its business lines include roofing and asphalt, insulation, and glass-fibre composites.

History

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1952 and has appeared on the Fortune 500 since the list began in 1955. Its move into roofing was linked to its glass-fibre know-how: after acquiring Frye Roofing in 1977, it began producing glass-fibre mats to replace the paper (organic felt) mats then common in roofing. Glass-fibre mat later became the standard reinforcement for asphalt shingles in North America.

Asbestos-related claims led Owens Corning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000. Its shares were removed from the NYSE in 2002, and the company re-listed in 2006 under the ticker OC. In 2007 it formed a reinforcements joint venture with Saint-Gobain. In May 2024 it completed the purchase of Masonite International, a door manufacturer, for about USD 3.9 billion, broadening its residential building-products range.

Roofing products

Owens Corning's roofing business makes asphalt shingles for steep-slope homes along with underlayments, ventilation, ridge caps and other components marketed as a roofing system. It also supplies asphalt used in roofing. In 2009 it started a programme to recycle torn-off asphalt shingles, for example into paving material.

Brand

The company is widely recognised in North America for using the Pink Panther character in its marketing, an arrangement dating from around 1980.