If you read the labels of products that you purchased the last time you swung through Home Depot, you would probably find that RPM International (RPM) is on at least one of them. The Ohio-based specialty chemicals manufacturer has diversified product lines that include high-quality specialty paints, protective coatings and roofing systems, sealants, adhesives and specialty chemicals for both industrial and consumer markets.

Its industrial products made up about two-thirds of the company's $3.3 billion in sales last year. These products have a much larger customer base than its consumer division's products, which are sold primarily in North America. Marketing efforts in 149 countries has kept the industrial division from feeling the woes in the U.S. real estate market, and demand for many of its non-residential industrial products has remained high throughout the housing bust. Some of RPM's well-known industrial brands include Dryvit insulation finishing systems, Tremco roofing systems, Alumanation roofing coatings, Stonhard commercial floor coatings, Kop-Coat industrial lumber treatments and Euco concrete admixtures.

On the other hand, the company's consumer segment manufactures and markets do-it-yourself products that focus on home improvement, automotive maintenance and leisure. These are the products that you find at your hardware store that have well-known brand names in very unglamorous applications. They are sold under labels such as Rust-Oleum and Stops-Rust, DAP caulks and sealants, Zinsser primer-sealers, Perma-White mildew-proof paint and Wolman deck coatings. And while you might assume that this is a bad time to be selling products so closely tied to housing, the division has actually posted strong sales growth on its maintenance and repair products. Most of their applications are somewhat insulated from slowing new-construction starts as people focus on fixing up their current homes rather than buying new ones.

RPM's second-quarter sales and net income reached record levels on increasing strength from its industrial segment. Overall sales grew 11.9% to $906 million from the $809 million that it reported in the same period last year, and net income increased 3.6% to a record of $54.9 million. Sales in the industrial segment rose 14.5% to $605.2 million from $528.6 million, while its consumer unit also posted healthy organic growth of 7.0%.

RPM's management said that the results "reflect the impact of new products; the diversity of RPM's end-use markets, many of which are driven by maintenance and repair spending; good expense controls and strong international growth in virtually all of the company's industrial businesses." Management also told investors to expect sales and earnings growth for the year to be in the range of 8% to 10% based on first-half performance and its business outlook for the remainder of fiscal 2008. While that's not exactly spectacular, it would be two to three times better than U.S. GDP growth.