Gougeon Brothers In the Beginning…
Brothers Meade, Joel, and Jan Gougeon founded the company in 1969 in Bay City, Michigan. They started out building sailboats and iceboats, then pioneered the use of epoxies for marine bonding and coating with their flagship WEST SYSTEM brand. The brothers innovated cold-moulded construction methods and in the late 1970s published their popular textbook, The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction.
Having grown from a modest boat shop that began experimenting with epoxy in the late 1960s to a trusted manufacturer and supplier of epoxies worldwide. Serving the high-end composite, boatbuilding, boat repair, and board-sports industries. The WEST SYSTEM products are manufactured under rigorous ISO 9001:2015 standards to ensure consistent high quality and performance. Marine and composites educators, designers, and manufacturers consider GBI epoxies—WEST SYSTEM®, PRO-SET®, and bio-based Entropy Resins®—the gold standard in their respective markets.
Wessex Resins & Adhesives
With a workforce of 50 individuals, Wessex Resins & Adhesives is a licensee of WEST SYSTEM products for manufacture in the EMEA markets in partnership with Gougeon Brothers. Manufacturing in the United Kingdom, WEST SYSTEM has served a strong presence in EMEA for over 40 years.
Today, thousands of marine chandleries worldwide distribute WEST SYSTEM products. “We look forward to serving our industries and customers for the next 50 years,” Alan Gurski (Gougeon Brothers) said.—From 50 Years in Epoxyworks #48
Giving Back
We donate 1% of Entropy Resins sales to environmental initiatives through 1% For The Planet, a global network of businesses, nonprofits, and individuals working together for a healthy planet.
Winning Partnerships
Contenders for America’s Cup have repeatedly turned to us for technical expertise and PRO-SET epoxies in developing state-of-the-art sailboats for this venerated contest. Both USA-based America’s Cup challengers, the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic, and the Long Beach Yacht Club’s Stars & Stripes, have retained PRO-SET as their official epoxy supplier. PRO-SET was also an official technical supplier to ORACLE TEAM USA, the defending champion in the 2017 series.