What Red Spot Paint & Varnish makes

Red Spot Paint & Varnish is a specialty coatings manufacturer built around one core competency: high-performance paint for plastic. The company formulates and produces coatings across several cure technologies, including thermal-cure, UV-curable, in-mold, and air-cured systems. Its product lines span primers and adhesion promoters, base coats and mono coats (straight shades, metallics, pearl coats, and special-effect pigments), clear coatings, pigmented coatings, functional hardcoats, laser-etch coatings, and physical vapor deposition (PVD) finishes.

The largest market is automotive, where Red Spot supplies coatings for interior, exterior, and lighting components. Interior applications include instrument panels and clusters, door trim and handles, center clusters, bezels, steering wheels, and soft-feel surfaces. Exterior work covers body panels, fascias, grilles, mirror housings, bumpers, spoilers, and weatherable clear coats. In automotive lighting, the company develops UV-curable and thermal hardcoats that protect polycarbonate headlamp lenses from UV degradation and abrasion. Beyond automotive, Red Spot serves heavy truck, non-automotive transportation, sporting goods, film and sheet, and containers and closures. The company positions itself as an OEM coatings supplier holding technology approvals at both domestic and transplant automakers, the qualifications a coatings maker needs to run production programs. It also operates analytical sciences and test-lab services that support formulation and failure analysis for its customers.

Ownership and history

The company began in 1903 in Evansville, Indiana, on the banks of the Ohio River, founded as Evansville Paint & Varnish Co. by Harry D. Bourland selling hardware, turpentine, and barn and carriage paint. It was renamed Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co., Inc. in 1921. In the late 1930s and 1940s the company shifted toward a new material, plastic, developing some of the first coatings formulated to adhere to and perform on plastic substrates. That focus became its defining specialty and carried it from a regional paint company into a global automotive coatings supplier.

Red Spot is a subsidiary of Fujikura Kasei Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-listed coatings and specialty-polymers company (Tokyo Stock Exchange code 4620). The two firms held license agreements dating to the early 1970s and formed a global alliance in 2000; Fujikura Kasei then acquired Red Spot in 2008. Red Spot is one of three companies in the Fujikura Kasei Global Network, alongside Fujichem Sonneborn (Europe and Africa) and Fujikura Kasei itself (Asia and India), with Red Spot responsible for development, sales, and support across North and South America. The corporate headquarters, R&D, and primary manufacturing remain in Evansville, with additional Americas facilities in Monterrey, Mexico (Red Spot de Mexico) and Osasco, Brazil (Arpol Red Spot Tintas), plus a sales and marketing office in Plymouth, Michigan. The company employs roughly 200 to 500 people and states it invests over 10% of revenues in research and development each year.

Certifications and quality

Red Spot reports an ISO 9001:2015 quality management system, certified since September 1995, with its current certificate valid through October 2029. Its environmental management system has held ISO 14001:2015 certification since February 2013. The company's laboratory carries ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, obtained in May 2024, with an A2LA scope covering testing of automotive components, coatings, plastics, and polymers. For automotive coatings buyers, these certifications and the company's stated use of formal quality planning matter because paint programs feed PPAP submissions and require consistent, auditable formulation across sites. The company's global network describes maintaining identical formulations and quality standards wherever a product is produced, which is a claim about supplier consistency rather than a third-party audit.

Known customers

Direct customer names are limited for a coatings supplier that sells into confidential OEM programs. One relationship is stated publicly by the company:

Beyond that, the company describes holding coating technology approvals at both domestic and transplant OEMs, a general claim rather than a named program list. Its import record (below) reflects a raw-material supply chain rather than a customer roster.

Sourcing evidence

Red Spot appears in US customs bill-of-lading records as an importer, with 198 sea shipments on record and its most recent shipment dated September 16, 2026. The named foreign suppliers include Nagase, a Japanese chemicals distributor, along with two of its own Fujikura Kasei Global Network affiliates, Red Spot Korea and Fujichem Sonneborn. That pattern fits a formulator importing resins, additives, and specialty raw materials for domestic paint production in Evansville and Monterrey, not a reseller importing finished goods. The intra-network supply from FGN affiliates is consistent with the company's stated model of transferring formulations across its global partners.

Coverage caveats apply. These are US ocean-freight records only; air, truck, and rail movements, including most cross-border flows with the company's Mexico and Brazil plants, do not appear. Some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence. For buyers weighing nearshoring and tariff exposure, the company's Americas manufacturing footprint in the US, Mexico, and Brazil is the more relevant fact than any single shipment line.

Frequently asked questions

What does Red Spot Paint & Varnish make?

Red Spot Paint & Varnish makes specialty high-performance coatings for plastic, including thermal-cure, UV-curable, in-mold, and PVD finishes. Its product range covers primers, base coats, clear coatings, pigmented coatings, functional hardcoats, and laser-etch coatings. The largest application is automotive interior, exterior, and lighting components, followed by heavy truck, transportation, sporting goods, film and sheet, and containers and closures.

Who owns Red Spot Paint & Varnish?

Red Spot is a subsidiary of Fujikura Kasei Co., Ltd., a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed coatings and specialty-polymers company (code 4620). Fujikura Kasei acquired Red Spot in 2008 after a global alliance that began in 2000 and license agreements dating to the early 1970s. Red Spot is part of the Fujikura Kasei Global Network and handles the Americas.

Where is Red Spot Paint & Varnish located?

Red Spot's headquarters, R&D, and primary manufacturing are at 1107 E. Louisiana Street, Evansville, Indiana 47711. It also operates a manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico, a plant in Osasco, Brazil, and a sales and marketing office in Plymouth, Michigan. Its parent network adds facilities across Japan, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Who are Red Spot Paint & Varnish's customers?

Most of Red Spot's customers are confidential OEM programs and are not named publicly. The company states on its own history page that its coatings appear on nearly every Ford car and truck built in North America, and it describes holding coating technology approvals at both domestic and transplant automakers.

How old is Red Spot Paint & Varnish?

Red Spot was founded in 1903 in Evansville, Indiana, as Evansville Paint & Varnish Co., and was renamed Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co., Inc. in 1921. It has operated for more than 120 years and shifted from general paint to plastic coatings beginning in the late 1930s and 1940s.

What certifications does Red Spot Paint & Varnish hold?

Red Spot reports ISO 9001:2015 quality management certification, held since 1995 and current through October 2029, along with ISO 14001:2015 environmental certification since 2013 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 laboratory accreditation since 2024. The lab accreditation covers testing of automotive components, coatings, plastics, and polymers.

Last verified September 28, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.