(FORTUNE Magazine) – RPM RPM's protective coatings shield some of America's best-known landmarks -- including the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge -- from rain, wind, and sun. But it's with less famous structures around the world that the company has really prospered for 46 years. RPM, in Medina, Ohio, makes sealants and specialty chemicals that coat dozens of smaller U.S. bridges; the walls, ceilings, and floors of hundreds of factories; and oil rigs in the North Sea and the Middle East. The company was founded by Frank Sullivan, father of current CEO Thomas Sullivan. Originally it made aluminum-treated asphalt coatings used to rustproof the metal exteriors of buildings. But under the younger Sullivan, RPM has expanded into new niches, including two businesses that make paints, brushes, and model car and airplane kits. It now has 25 primary divisions, with plants in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. ''We look only at companies where management is going to stay with us and agrees with our philosophy of high- margin growth,'' says Sullivan. Not all acquisitions have paid off. During the past decade, RPM has sold six companies, worth $100 million, whose profits didn't measure up. Sullivan's management style is closer to the loose rein than to the tight fist: He lets executives in each business make most decisions. Planning for new products and capital spending is done jointly by centralized management and individual division heads. Elliott Schlang, an analyst at Kidder Peabody in Cleveland, expects net income to grow 16% in 1993, to $43.2 million, on a 15% rise in revenues, to $689 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $17.75, or 23 times Schlang's estimate of 1993 earnings per share. The company has increased its dividend in each of the last 19 years.

BROOKSTONE Brookstone has crossed the bumpy road from mail-order company to successful retailer. It operates 100 stores nationwide that sell such items as tools, gardening equipment, and household gadgets. Although it still has catalogs, 85% of revenues come from store sales. Most of the stores opened in the 1980s, under management more seasoned in selling goods off the printed page than from the store floor. An LBO in 1986 added to Brookstone's problems, since the stores weren't profitable enough to carry the debt. But in 1990 retail veteran Merwin Kaminstein began putting things right. As CEO he renegotiated with creditors and eliminated unprofitable merchandise. Brookstone, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, plans to open 12 stores this year and 17 in 1994. Analyst Janet Kloppenburg, at Robertson Stephens & Co., expects 1993 operating income to rise 41%, to $12 million, on a 14% rise in revenues, to $136 million. The company went public in March, at $10.50 a share, and it traded recently on Nasdaq for $12.63, or 13.6 times Kloppenburg's estimate of 1993 earnings per share.

LIBERTY TECHNOLOGIES Liberty, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, got a big boost two years ago when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission funded tests that found the company's equipment the most reliable for checking valves in nuclear power plants, beating out devices made by Siemens, Teledyne, and others. Orders flew in, and today Liberty's diagnostic products are in 75 of the 109 U.S. nuclear plants. The company's equipment includes a computer that tests the force used to tighten valves. These tests are mandatory, since the valves control, among other things, a plant's emergency operating system. Although sales to nuclear power plants account for most of Liberty's revenues, CEO Nim Evatt wants to sell to chemical, refining, and pulp and paper companies as well. Sheila Ennis, an analyst at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco, expects net income to surge 106% in 1993, to $2.6 million, on a 41% rise in revenues, to $19.3 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $7, or 12 times Ennis's estimate of 1993 earnings per share.