It was a warm summer day in 1969 when Manfred Swarovski stopped for an ice-cold cerveza in a small town in Mexico. It was here, more than 6,000 miles from his home in  Austria, where a chance meeting with Gene Autry, cousin of the famous singing cowboy, occurred and the concept for SWARCO's flagship product was scrawled out on bar napkins. 

Manfred is no stranger to success. As the great grandson to the founder of D. Swarovski, the global high-end crystal company, it could be argued that an entrepreneurial spirit was part of his DNA. But it was his own grit, curiosity and passion that led him away from the luxurious world of crystal and into the bar that warm summer day. It is those very qualities that propelled his own company into greatness and comprise the very essence of what drives and unites SWARCO's worldwide team today.

Today, that flagship product - glass beads - born out of a kismet meeting in Mexico is a key piece of what makes SWARCO second in reflectorized road marking systems worldwide. It is also just one of the many SWARCO solutions that touch the lives of millions of people in over 70 countries each day. 

SWARCO's innovative mobility solutions can be largely broken down into two major categories:

As you'd expect with news this big, we've received a lot of encouragement and a lot of questions. Below are answers to your top three questions. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to  let us know.

• Do I need a new W9 to continue doing business with McCain?
  No, we are not changing our name so no existing documents, purchase agreements, or contracts need to be updated.

• What changes can I expect?
  While we cannot predict the future, at this point, we do not foresee any major changes that will impact the way we do business with our customers, partners, or distributors. While it may seem cliché to say we're the same great company, only better... well, that's just how we feel.

• So then what does the acquisition mean for customers?
  The transition to SWARCO ownership has gone relatively unnoticed by most of our customers, a trend we don't foresee changing, as all McCain key contacts and processes remain intact.
  
  However, with direct access to SWARCO's global network of ITS providers, we do hope to gain even more knowledge, expertise, and products that we can pass along to you. Expect to hear more about the latter in the near future.

In addition to the words of support and excitement about our new SWARCO family, we also received a flood of heartfelt notes and stories about our founder, Jeffrey McCain. In reading over your emails, cards, and letters, Jeff and his wife Beth were humbled by the response and had this to say...