Cromology’s story began 275 years ago. Cromology’s roots lie in Europe with the passion of family entrepreneurs.
As Johannes Jodocus Tollens (Netherlands, 1748), brothers Francis and Albert Claessens (Switzerland, 1887) and Max Meyer (Italy, 1895), each of them founded a company in their own country, motivated by a common desire: creating exceptional decorative paints with unquestionable technical and aesthetic qualities to protect and beautify our living environments.
This desire is a heritage that Cromology has carefully preserved over the centuries.
Many of the other brands brought together by Cromology are also entrepreneurial stories that have now achieved iconic status: Duco (Italy, 1928), Tintas Robbialac (Portugal, 1931), Alp Pinturas (Spain, 1940), Settef (Italy, 1957), Zolpan (France, 1959), Duraval (Spain, 1963) and Arcol (1980).
In 1988, the Lafarge Group set up a paint division, which was reinforced by the purchase of Tollens in 1990.
In 1995, Lafarge Peintures was created within the Specialty Materials division of the world leader in construction materials.
In 2001, Lafarge’s Specialty Materials division became Materis. Lafarge Peintures became Materis Paints in 2005.
Between 1996 and 2007, Materis Paints became a european player by bringing together more than ten brands (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland) and moved into emerging markets in Morocco.
In 2006, Wendel, one of Europe’s leading listed investment firms, became Materis’ main shareholder.
In 2014, Materis Paints became a standalone company following the sale of the Materis Group’s other interests.
In 2015, Materis Paints changed its name to become Cromology.
A new management team is named in 2018.
Cromology has belonged to DuluxGroup, a subsidiary of Nippon Paint Group, the world’s fourth-largest paint Group in January 2022.
