More than 300 people, ranging from local politicians, board of directors, trade partners, employees and other VIPs gathered on Aug. 5 outside Watts Water Technologies’ international headquarters in North Andover, Massachusetts, for a day-long celebration of the company’s 150 years in business.

“I’m proud to be here today to celebrate our 150th,” said Bob Pagano, CEO of Watts. “Not many companies can say they’ve been around 150 years.” To make it to this century-and-a-half mark, Pagano added that “you have to adapt, you have to change, [and] you have to do things differently.”

The company got its start in 1874 when English immigrant Joseph E. Watts opened Watts Regulator Co., a machining shop in Lawrence, Massachusetts, supplying parts and fittings to local textile mills. Last year, the publicly traded international company reported $2.06 billion in revenue; more recently Watts reported record second quarter sales of $597 million, up 12% from the second quarter of 2023.

“Our commitment is grounded on three core principals,” Pagano added. “Safety and regulation, water conservation, and energy efficiency are what we call our triple play strategy, with a dedication to creating products that not only ensure the safe proper management of water, but also reduce our impact on the environment.”

Watts currently operates 35 principle manufacturing sites that provide an extensive line of flow control, water safety, water filtration and treatment, radiant heating, and drainage products for the commercial, residential and institutional markets.

Since Pagano took the CEO job a decade ago, Watts has also acquired a number of other companies, such as AERCO International, PVI Industries and Bradley Corp.

“That’s allowed us to offer system solutions and not just components,” he explained. “In our 150th year, Watts innovations and growth have extended our solutions from behind the wall in the plumbing and heating industry to now in front of the wall.”

Horne Family Legacy

After Pagano’s remarks, Tim Horne, director emeritus and former CEO of Watts, gave an entertaining account of his family’s three-generation-long leadership role in the company after his grandfather, Burchard “B.E.” Horne purchased the company in 1918 for $25,000.

“The big home run during Burchard’s tenure was the advent of the temperature and pressure relief valve,” Horne said. “At the time, water heaters were equipped with a pressure only valve, and we still had water heater explosions. So Burchard and his right-hand engineer, Wendell Dillon, did a lot of tests to prove that it was a combination of temperature and pressure that created water heater explosions.”

The company went on to prove its point by blowing up model homes with just a pressure only valve on the water heater and show the safety of homes with a T&P valve installed in a demonstration film titled, “Danger, Explosion Lurks.” (Take a look here: tinyurl.com/3wy28z8r)

The film, viewed by thousands of plumbing inspectors and code officials, helped set the stage for the first national standard for T&P valves in 1935.

“It’s safe to say today that every water heater in the United States is equipped with a code-approved temperature and pressure relief valve,” Horne added.

Horne’s father, George Horne, took over the company in 1951 and is known for expanding Watts’ sales by building the company’s first national manufacturers rep sales network.

“When I joined the company, he said, ‘Son, I want to do a million dollars a month,’” Horne explained. “Annual sales were roughly $6 million at the time, so he was very aggressive in getting out in the field to appoint sales representatives.”

Following the company’s pioneering work on T&P valves, George is also known for championing backflow prevention.

“At the time we decided to enter this market,” Horne explained, “there were only two other manufacturers and they had grossly over-designed their products. They were big, bulky, and frankly not cost affordable. So it was a very small market indeed.”

The company eventually came out with its Model 900 Backflow Preventer, which was less expensive to make and sell and took less installation space.

“We led the industry in education about backflow and the need to have codes to enforce the installation of backflow,” Horne added. “We commissioned all our sales reps to go out and do the missionary work to call on plumbing inspectors and code officials to make it happen. And, by the way, backflow is by far and away today the company’s largest selling product line.”

Horne, himself, became company president in 1976 and after his father retired in 1978, he became both president and CEO. During his tenure, he’s known for expanding the company through acquisitions of complementary companies that would expand the company beyond a successful family-owned business to an international publicly-owned enterprise traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Between 1985 and 1995, for example, Watts made 32 acquisitions. And by the time Horne retired in 2002, the company had bought 50 companies.

While he recounted the past, Horne ended his presentation by reminding everyone that “anniversaries are actually more about the future than the past.”

One part of that future is the advent of smart technology connecting various Watts products with remote monitoring and control.

“This is the future,” Horne concluded. “This is the future of Watts. We’re leading the way and we’ve got to keep investing our time and money to make this happen.”

Innovation Tour

With the future in mind, the day’s celebrations continued with a walk inside corporate headquarters to tour the newly rededicated Horne Learning Center, where attendees learned about Nexa, an intelligent water management system so new that the company didn’t even have a press release for it yet. From the agenda, however, Watts described it as a “sensing technology that empowers building owners and operators with unmatched insight and control, improving system efficiency, mitigating the risk of water damage, and conserving water and energy to provide the best occupant experience possible.”

The tour also included presentations on Orion’s Ultra High-Purity Piping; Leak Defense’s BuildAlert leak protection system; Mueller Steam Specialities’ Smart Strainer; Bradley’s Elvari collection of washroom accessories as well as the Halo Swing Activated Faucet Eyewash, and the Verge with WashBarWB2 1-Station; and Powers’ IntelliStation 2 IoT-enabled Digital Mixing Valve.

Meanwhile, the BradVan was parked outside. It’s one of a fleet of six mobile training facilities from Bradley outfitted with the company’s products. Three vans feature Bradley’s commercial and architectural products; the other three vans feature Bradley’s Safety Industrial Solutions such as emergency eyewashes and showers. All of the vans travel regularly throughout the U.S. to provide education for contractors, engineers and wholesalers.