Because it often appears in the local news media that the company I work for, Koppers, is no longer here, I thought I would attempt to clarify a series of changes that have left some confusion about this old Pittsburgh firm.

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The name Koppers is often linked with Westinghouse Electric, Gulf Oil and other companies that have left Pittsburgh with little more than a building bearing their name.

But while Koppers Co. is gone, Koppers Inc. is very much here, carrying on a manufacturing tradition of more than eight decades from its headquarters on five floors of the Koppers Building, Downtown.

Let me explain.

In 1988, Beazer P.L.C. acquired the "old" Koppers Co. Inc. in a very public takeover. In December 1988, a team of employees led by founding chairman Robert K. Wagner bought some assets of the company, including its well-known name, and created Koppers Industries Inc. "New" Koppers shortened its name to Koppers Inc. in February 2003.

While some current employees, including current president and CEO Walter W. Turner, once worked for "old" Koppers, the companies are not the same. "New" Koppers is today known for treated wood products, carbon materials and chemicals. Koppers employs 2,200 and operates 39 facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, the Pacific Rim and South Africa.

In 15 years, revenues have grown 70 percent. Sales for 2002 totaled $730 million. Today, Koppers is one of the leading producers of commercial roofing products, the world's largest distiller of coal tar and the largest producer of railroad track crossties.

Koppers has 110 employees at its headquarters, 337 in plants in Follansbee, W.Va., Clairton, Monessen, and 15 at the research center in Harmarville. The original Koppers Co. was founded by Heinrich Koppers, a German engineer who developed a new type of coke oven that economically recovered the byproduct chemicals of the coking process. American steel producers brought Koppers to the United States and he built his first ovens in 1907 in Joliet, Ill.

By 1915, American investors had purchased the company and moved it to Pittsburgh, establishing a research department at the Mellon Institute. From 1917 to 1920, the company built an average of one coke plant every 60 days.

The Koppers Building, at 436 Seventh Ave., was completed in 1929. Thirty-four stories tall, this stepped-back limestone skyscraper exemplifies Art Deco-style architecture with its green copper chateauesque roof and elegant brass fittings in the multistory lobby.

By 1944, the combined production of all Koppers byproduct coke plants was 4.5 million tons a year, about 7 percent of the coke production in the United States. In addition, Koppers Co. was involved in architectural and construction materials, plastics, engineering, environmental control systems and automobile and aircraft piston rings. It also owned 25 coal mines in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

By 1970, Koppers Co. had built more than 120 blast furnaces throughout the world, about one-eighth of the world's capacity, and its equipment was installed in 99 percent of all U.S. blast furnaces. At that time, it was among the 250 largest industrial companies in the country with 13,000 employees at 125 plants.

The 1988 purchases, first by Beazer and then by Koppers management, altered the firm's structure and led to the creation of "new" Koppers. Today, Koppers Inc.

Far from dead, Koppers Inc. continues to represent Pittsburgh's heritage of industrial manufacturers, but as a modern, environmentally conscious company of international scope, with a brand known here at home, and around the world.