In short: #7. Founded 1866, IPO 1964 — the best compound rate on the list at 15.5% a year since 1990. The distribution argument is the whole case: "They also own the vast majority of Sherwin-Williams stores throughout the U.S… Its large store network makes contractors choose Sherwin-Williams because there's always a store nearby for supplies." Owning the shops rather than selling through others is the structural difference against every other paint maker. Already on TJ Terwilliger's twenty-year list, where the 5,400-store network was the same argument.
Sherwin-Williams makes paint and — unusually — owns the shops that sell it. That second fact is the entire business. Professional decorators do not choose paint by brand; they choose the supplier whose store is closest, because running out mid-job means downtime and downtime is the expensive part.
Thousands of company-owned stores across the United States mean there is almost always one nearby, and a rival would have to build the whole network before it could compete for the first customer. The result is the best compound rate on the list: 15.5% a year since 1990. The same argument put it on the team's twenty-year list in July.
In short: #9 — "Irreplaceable distribution network." Paint and coatings sold "largely through their massive, localized network of company-owned stores tailored directly to professional contractors." Why twenty years is safe: "paint and protective coatings will always be needed to maintain the world's infrastructure and housing," and the store network "is nearly impossible for new competitors to copy." The mechanism is the contractor's clock: "time is money for professional painters and contractors, and one of Sherwin-Williams' 5,400 stores is always nearby."
Sherwin-Williams makes paint and coatings and, unusually, sells them mostly through its own stores — around 5,400 of them — aimed squarely at professional decorators rather than at homeowners.
That store network is the moat, and the reason is the contractor's day. A painter who runs out of a colour mid-job needs more within minutes, not tomorrow; the nearest Sherwin-Williams store is the one that keeps the crew working. Replicating that coverage would take a competitor years and enormous capital before earning a single sale. Meanwhile the underlying demand is maintenance rather than fashion: everything built has to be repainted eventually, whatever the economy is doing.
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