Pentair: 50 Years of Winning Right

Jan 14, 2016 1:15 PM ET

Pentair, a global company dedicated to building a safer, more sustainable world, celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2016.  

In this video, Pentair’s four CEOs reflect on the company’s history and its Win Right values.

It all began on July 6, 1966, when five men intent on manufacturing high-altitude balloons founded a company in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, that they called Pentair. They formed the name from the Greek “penta” representing the five founders, and “air” for the products they planned to produce.

In the early years, Pentair diversified quickly, venturing into industries ranging from plastic canoe manufacturing to computer software, from leather footwear to meat rendering, before acquiring a series of paper mills that would serve as the company’s core for nearly two decades.

Known for a willingness to venture into new industries and its ability to find operating efficiencies—which would become the cornerstone for the Pentair Integrated Management System—the company for a time also made woodworking machinery, ammunition and power tools.

Five decades later, Pentair’s 26,000 employees design, manufacture and market industrial products sold on six continents. Driven by a purpose of building a safer, more sustainable world, Pentair delivers industry leading products, services and solutions that help people make the best use of the resources they rely on most. Its technology moves the world forward by ensuring that water is plentiful, useful and pure, and that critical equipment and those near it are protected.