Koppers Company

Koppers is a global, diversified manufacturing company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original Koppers Company was founded by Dr. Heinrich Koppers, a young German engineer who developed a new type of coke oven that could economically recover the byproduct chemicals of the coal-cooking process. Koppers came to the United States and built his first ovens in 1907 in Joliet, Illinois. The company was incorporated in Chicago in 1912 before establishing its headquarters in Pittsburgh in 1914. Koppers Industries, Inc. was created in December 1988 when it acquired some assets of the Koppers Company, Inc. in a management buyout. By 2009, Koppers Industries, Inc. operated in thirty-nine locations in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, employing more than 2,000 people worldwide. Koppers has become a leading integrated producer of chemicals, carbon compounds, and treated wood products for the aluminum, steel, chemical, rubber, railroad and utility industries.