In 1974, Ellsworth Adhesives began its startup in Milwaukee, WI., in the home basement of Paul Ellsworth's father, Paul Ellsworth, Sr., who also helped finance and organize the fledgling business. Soon after, Patsy Ellsworth joined the company after the birth of the couple's first child. She performed all of the office functions such as customer service, purchasing, accounting and shipping and receiving, while their newborn son slept in the crib nearby.

A year later, the business had grown too large for the basement of Paul Sr.'s home. A steady procession of UPS and service trucks was beginning to cause a disturbance in the quiet suburban neighborhood. They decided then that they should relocate the business to a new location, the basement office of a local shopping center.  It was at this time that they hired their first employee, Judy Ernster, who is still with the company today. In 1976, Paul and Patsy purchased Paul Ellsworth Sr.'s stake in the company and became its sole stockholders.

In the 1980's, Ellsworth Adhesives started its expansion program with its first branch offices opening in Minneapolis and Chicago. The company grew rapidly through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions and soon developed a nationwide system of branches and sales people who could effectively service the manufacturing industry.

In 1984, the company acquired Kitpackers, a custom packager of a wide variety of chemical products. Shortly thereafter, the company also purchased Badger Adhesives, a custom formulator and toll manufacturer of resin materials. The Badger Adhesives name was changed to Resinlab. Both companies operate in separate buildings in the Germantown, Wisconsin Industrial Park.

In 1996, the company purchased the assets of Valley Adhesives, a formulator of hot melt and water based materials for the packaging and converting industry. The name has been changed to The Glue Factory and is located in Appleton, Wisconsin.

In the year 1999, Ellsworth Adhesives acquired Glue Dots International, a manufacturer of various sizes and shapes of pressure sensitive adhesive on a release liner. Glue Dots is headquartered in New Berlin, Wisconsin and has manufacturing operations in the U.S., U.K., and China.

In 2006, TechFilm, located in Boston, Massachusetts, joined the Ellsworth group of companies.  TechFilm is a manufacturer of adhesive films and performs.

Ellsworth Adhesives continued to expand through the years and moved its' distribution center five times before eventually building its' current 85,000 sq. ft. World Headquarters and Distribution Center in 2003 in the new Germantown, Wisconsin Industrial Park. It currently has branch offices and warehousing throughout the U.S. and also has expanded internationally with distribution and manufacturing operations in Mexico, Canada, Europe, U.K., Central Europe, Scandinavia, and most recently Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Ellsworth Adhesives has developed a reputation in the industry for providing an unusual combination of excellence in distribution as well as the most comprehensive level of technical expertise available. Today Ellsworth Adhesives has grown into one of the largest distributors of specialty chemicals in the world and has developed some unique technologies and operating strategies in the manufacturing industry.