The W. L. Gore & Associates has made its name by creating innovative, technology-driven solutions, from medical devices that treat aneurysms to high-performance GORE-TEX® fabrics. A privately held company whose annual sales approach $2 billion, Gore is committed to perpetuating its nearly 50-year tradition of product innovation.
Gore focuses its efforts in four main areas: electronics, fabrics, industrial and medical products. The company’s electronic products division develops and manufactures high-performance copper and optical signal transmission products. Gore’s fabrics provide protection from the elements and enable wearers to remain comfortable across a broad range of activities and conditions, both indoors and out. The products made by Gore’s industrial division meet diverse contamination control and processing challenges throughout industry, while implants from the medical division provide creative healing solutions to complex medical problems.
The company today claims a manufacturing or sales presence in more than 80 countries, employs more than 7,000 associates and sells thousands of high-performance products in diverse markets around the world. Gore technology and manufacturing facilities are clustered in the U.S., Germany, Scotland, Japan and China.
Culture: Gore is as well known for its unique corporate culture as it is for its innovative products. The company uses the “lattice” structure, a team-based environment that encourages personal initiative and person-to-person communication among all “associates,” as employees are known. Gore’s emphasis on minimal barriers to creativity and sound decision making has proved to be good business. By encouraging individual initiative and innovation, the corporate culture fosters both product success and associate satisfaction. Today Gore is one of only four companies to appear in every listing of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” now published annually in Fortune magazine.
History: In 1958, Bill Gore left DuPont after 17 years as a research chemist to pursue market opportunities for fluorocarbon polymers, especially polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE, then used principally in products carrying the TEFLON® brand. Along with his wife, Vieve, Bill began the new business venture in the basement of the family’s home in Newark, Delaware.
In 1969, the couple’s son, Bob Gore, discovered that PTFE could be stretched to form a strong, porous material—a discovery that changed the future of the company. This discovery, expanded PTFE or ePTFE, enabled Gore to broaden its electronic products offerings and develop myriad new applications in medical, fabric and industrial markets.
As the company that invented ePTFE and introduced it in the marketplace, Gore is committed to remaining a leader in fluoropolymers, particularly in PTFE processing and fluoropolymer development. The depth of the company’s technical know-how has contributed to a wide range of processes and creative, reliable technologies that continue to solve problems and change outcomes for customers around the world.
®GORE and GORE-TEX are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates. ™TEFLON is a trademark of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.
