Acquisition Grows NoHo Paint Factory

A North Hollywood paint factory has acquired a Los Angeles paint shop, making 10 locations in the company’s retail distribution network.Catalina Paints bought Jill’s Paint after its owner Peggy McCloud decided not to continue after a new owner doubled the rent at the building where it has been located for 18 years.Her alternatives, McCloud said, were not attractive.One was to pay the rent at a time when the coronavirus outbreak was just starting and there would have been little money coming in. Another was to relocate to another space and move all her equipment and paint.“I didn’t have it in me,” McCloud said of either option.She first offered to sell Jill’s to her employees, but they weren’t able to come up with the financing. Then she approached David and John Cohn, the sons of Catalina Paints founder Bud Cohn, who died five years ago at age 78.Bud Cohn had once told McCloud that when her job stopped being fun, it was time to get out, both she and David Cohn said.With the pandemic, she reached the point of no fun, McCloud added.“We had a long-winded negotiation more with the landlord,” David Cohn said. “The pandemic kind of made the guy figure out how to lease his building. So we were able to stay in that location.”McCloud described Jill’s, at 3534 Larga Ave. in Atwater Village, as a high-end, boutique paint store that catered more to homeowners than to the painting contractors served by Catalina. The interior décor is reminiscent of the 1940s or 1950s with paint cans and advertisements on the walls; an old Coke machine from 1954; wine crates; a candy jar on the counter; and dog biscuits and toys for children, McCloud said.“Just some soft touches to make it not feel like a man’s paint store,” she added.David Cohn said that all of McCloud’s staff has been retained. McCloud has agreed to stay on during the transition and to act as a consultant for Catalina’s other locations that stretch from the San Fernando Valley to Redondo Beach.“We are going to keep her employees and I think they are excited to come into a little more structure,” Cohn said.Catalina Paints, which has been in North Hollywood since 1968 and makes its own paints as well as selling the Benjamin Moore brand, has grown by acquisition. But some of the earlier store purchases came with employee problems or other complications, David Cohn said.But right off the bat, he could see that Jill’s is a real robust store that is profitable, he said.“The other ones were a little meh,” he said. “It finally feels that we are experienced enough to help us get over the hump.”