About Accessa
Tailoring expert services and delivering superior products since 1979, Accessa is centered on customers’ needs to improve their products and their bottom lines. Through Accessa, all of our customers, large and small, have access to products that perform to the highest standards, and an industry-leading brain trust of knowledge, experience, creativity and know-how.
Accessa Coatings Solutions
From contractor startups to large-scale industrial customers, Accessa Coatings Solutions strives to be an incomparable coatings solutions source for every client. In addition to providing top-performing coatings, our team assists with OEM coatings systems optimization, environmental compliance issues, formula engineering and product development.
Accessa Chemical Solutions
At Accessa Chemical Solutions, we believe that the surface treatment, metalworking and chemical specialty products you rely on are integral to meeting the highest expectations. Guided by a laser focus on each customer’s specific needs, we tailor the expert services, superior products and guidance that Accessa Chemical Solutions delivers. Every customer, large or small, has access to our industry-leading braintrust of knowledge, experience and creativity.
Service
When you’re ready to act on a big idea, solve a complex problem or move quickly, you don’t have to act alone. Accessa partners with its customers to help you overcome challenges and keep your business moving ahead. Whether your challenge is cost management, quality control, time management or environmental regulations, we are here to find solutions for you.
The Accessa Difference
Starting in 1979, our company has grown to a leadership position by accruing technical know-how; encouraging the creative process and problem solving; and investing in operational leverage. Consider these Accessa differences and always expect more:
- Experience
- A reputation built on customer service
- Customer training and problem solving
- Trained customer field reps
- Competitive pricing
- Efficiencies in fulfillment, inventory control and minimum orders
- Minimum lead time and back orders
- Continuous new product and application development
- Multiple vendor partners in various product categories
- Our promise of quality and care
The Accessa Story
Paints & Solvents, Inc., was established as a manufacturer of wood stains, and a distributor of wood coatings. Its major supplier for these wood coatings was Lilly Industries, Inc., an Indianapolis, Indiana based chemical coatings manufacturing company.
CourterCo, Inc., purchased Paints & Solvents. CourterCo needed Paints & Solvents to supplement their coatings division and have the ability to buy larger volumes of product and pour-down into smaller quantities to satisfy the needs of CourterCo’s customer base. In effect, CourterCo purchased an intermediate manufacturing company that was to be its own supplier. This also created a supply source that satisfied the needs of the 4,000 cabinet shops already doing business with CourterCo for their hardware needs.
By the end of the year, CourterCo determined it had no cohesive long-term business strategy and management was overwhelmed with the day-to-day operations which made it difficult to be anything but reactive. CourterCo management therefore hired Vincent Todd as Vice President to manage its Coatings Division. Mr. Todd had years of experience with Lilly Industries and brought with him a very diverse background in coatings experience. It was Todd’s responsibility to create and direct a strategy to coincide with the CourterCo business plan. Later that year, through an alliance created with Lilly Industries, Paints and Solvents was further expanded by assuming the role of master distributor of Lilly’s Perfection Electrostatic Paint Division.
In approximately 18 months, and under the direction of Vince Todd, Paints & Solvents had grown approximately 450 percent.
Paints & Solvents was purchased by Coatings Solutions LLC, owned by Vince Todd. The company had grown from five employees and one location to 40 employees and four locations. They had expanded their product distribution line to include industrial finishes for wood, metal, and several plastics. These finishes represented 8-10 vendor partners for whom Paints & Solvents has become a major distribution partner.
Paints & Solvents announced a name change to better reflect the company’s focus on providing expert coatings solutions for industry. Todd’s company quickly became known as Accessa Coatings Solutions conveying what the company does best—fostering their customers’ access to coatings solutions.
HIT Solutions was formed in 2008, partnering with pioneers in research and development of innovative adhesive, chemical specialty, metal working, and surface treatment solutions. HIT Solutions’ mission was to be the preferred logistics provider of value-added services and quality adhesive, surface treatment, metal working, and chemical specialty products.
Accessa Coatings Solutions expanded once again by relocating its Northern Indiana facility to Elkhart, Indiana. The expansion took this Accessa facility from approximately 8,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet.
Accessa Coatings Solutions formed strategic partnerships with Liquid Recovery Inc. and Cornerstone Environmental, Health and Safety to empower customers working in coatings, surface treatments and other industries to make more proactive decisions to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, decrease financial liabilities/risks, ease permitting and more. In 2013, we also published our first digital guide, “Lessons Learned to Keep Coating Customers Growing,” offering insights gained from more than three decades of experience in the coatings industry.
On Jan. 4, 2016, Accessa Coatings Solutions and HIT Solutions came together under the parent company name of Accessa. Accessa Coatings Solutions kept its name, and HIT Solutions became Accessa Chemical Solutions. The businesses remain separate business entities. This decision was made based on a number of factors and opportunities, including the following:
- It supports our customers: This new structure makes Accessa more of a one-stop shop for our customers, allowing our team to discuss coatings and chemical solutions during the same conversation with less confusion regarding who is providing the product/service.
- It strengthens our foundation: Having Accessa as a parent company with multiple, connected divisions allows us to more easily fulfill customers’ future needs, as we can build complementary divisions under the Accessa name to support customers as the marketplace changes.
- It strengthens brand equity/clarity: Under the banner of “Accessa Chemical Solutions,” our chemical products brand benefits from the brand equity Accessa Coatings Solutions has built across the Midwest.
