The service centers, located in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, will be operated under the Stellar Kwal Paint name. Professional Paint's five existing Stellar Paint service centers, in Dallas-Fort Worth, will be combined with Jones-Blair retail stores. Stellar Kwal will continue to sell Jones-Blair brand products. Professional Paint said the acquisition expands its retail operations to 275 service centers for contractor and consumer products in the western United States and Canada.

Jones-Blair's retail stores are concentrated in Texas, and are located in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville, Waco, Amarillo, and Waco. Other Jones-Blair stores are in Chattanooga, TN, and Birmingham, AL.

Dallas-based Jones-Blair said the sale is the result of a strategic decision to divest its architectural-paint business, which sells products to painting contractors and consumers, and to focus on its two core businesses -- Neogard and Industrial Coatings. The Neogard business is a producer of waterproofing, roofing, wall, and floor coatings.

Kent Child, president of Professional Paint, said his company had originally planned to acquire essentially all of Jones-Blair's operations when plans for the deal were originally announced last year. The companies agreed during negotiations, however, that the purchase would include only Jones-Blair's architectural-paint business. "That's really the focus of our business," Child said.

The acquisition does not include any Jones-Blair manufacturing operations, and Child said production would be shifted to existing Professional Paint locations; the company operates five production plants. "We have plenty of capacity," Child said.

Professional Paint, based in Denver, is the parent company of six other regional paint companies, including Frazee Paint, San Diego; General Paint, Vancouver, British Columbia; Hanley Paint, El Paso, TX; Kwal Paint, Denver; Parker Paint, Tacoma, WA; and Sophir-Morris Paint, Omaha.

Professional Paint said the Jones-Blair purchase reflects its strategy to acquire paint companies that offer access to new growth markets with established regional brands.