4th generation family owned business.
Silver Lead Company was founded in 1891 as a house paint manufacturer and retailer. As the company evolved we got out of the manufacturing business and concentrated on our Paint and Wallpaper stores, all of which carried artist materials. As we acquired more art lines we began to do some wholesale art business to our immediate geographic area. In the mid sixties we made a greater commitment to distributing art supplies by printing a catalog and hiring outside sales staff.
Our modern day history is we re-committed to becoming a Paint manufacturer in 1981. We acquired a building to house our new manufacturing capabilities as well as our growing Wholesale Art operation. Our corporate name was changed to OLeary Paint and Silver Lead remained as a separate independent division of OLeary Paint Company.
In 1986 Silver Lead was a founding member of the Pro Art buying group. A distributor buying group with a small membership of prominent regional distributors whose main focus was to develop a private label line of competitive commodity products for our retail customers.
In 1990 we opened our new state of the art paint manufacturing plant and Silver Lead took over the remaining space of our existing building.
To be a partner in our retail customers success by providing a comprehensive offering of the top brands as well as some unique and competitive opportunities with our proprietary offerings.
Art Supply retailers College bookstores Regional/National Chains Educational/ Toy stores