Contributed by Steve Houston
I was honored and exited to be asked to contribute an article on managing a powder coating shop. It’s a great opportunity to share the lessons I've learned over the years, the successes, the challenges and the experiences that come with managing powder coating operations. With more than 35 years in the coatings industry, I have dedicated my career to helping manufacturers and custom coaters improve performance through innovation, technical expertise and sound business practices.
Stephen Walters, CEO of Progressive Coatings (Chicago, Ill.), believes it’s imperative to know the market conditions in the area of your business location. If not, it’s impossible to make appropriate decisions, he said. Photo courtesy of Progressive Coatings.
While compiling information for this article, it became obvious that no two powder coating shops are the same. So, I took a fresh look at the question, “How do you manage a successful powder coating shop?” in search of real answers.
Not every powder coating shop is well-run, profitable, or sustainable, but they can be. Each one uses different equipment, has different layouts, serves different customers and follows different processes. More importantly, they operate in different regions, compete in different markets and pursue different business goals. Yet some consistently succeed while others struggle.
The real difference between a powder coating facility and a successful powder coating operation isn't found in the equipment or the layout. It's found in the core business strategy, the principles they believe in, and the things they refuse to compromise on.
I met with Varina Keeling, senior marketing manager at Vitracoat, and together we set out to identify the principles needed to build a successful powder coating shop. These principles are the common threads that tie the successful shops together.
Because we’ve been exposed to many powder coating shops, we quickly selected three successful ones from different regions of the country, each serving different industries and operating with equipment and processes unique to their business.
The first shop is Houston Powder Coaters (Houston, Texas), run by owner, Flaviu Fasie. HPC is a full-service powder coating facility offering a range of capabilities that span industrial, commercial and residential markets. The company has more than 50 years of powder coating experience. It provides industrial powder coatings, fusion bonded epoxy (FBE), architectural, commercial, residential, automotive and marine powder coating, along with custom powder coating and repair/refinishing work. Beyond standard finishes, HPC stocks more than 130 colors and offers specialty coating options.
“Everything boils down to understanding what actually makes your business money,” said Flaviu Fasie, owner of Houston Powder Coaters (Houston, Texas), adding that understanding profitability starts with understanding the operation. Photo courtesy of Vitracoat.
The second shop we chose was established in 1983 and is PCI 3000 certified. Inland Powder Coating Corp. (IPC) is an Ontario (Los Angeles), California-based industrial finisher specializing in electrostatic powder application and oven curing. Its standout capability is scale flexibility: its ovens can accommodate parts exceeding 30 feet in length alongside small components. The company handles everything from high-volume runs in the thousands to single specialized pieces. It serves industries such as automotive, furniture, industrial machinery and architectural metalwork. We talked to owner David Flatten for this article.
Inland Powder Coating Corp. is a California-based industrial finisher specializing in electrostatic powder application and oven curing. Its ovens can accommodate parts exceeding 30 feet in length. Photo courtesy of inlandpowder.com.
Stephen Walters, owner of Progressive Coating (Chicago, Illinois, and Juarez, Mexico), was the third source we chose for this article. Progressive Coating is a 40-plus year-old industrial coating provider that positions itself as the industry leader in fluidized bed powder coating with a focus on electrical insulation coating of bus bar for the electric vehicle, data center, power distribution, locomotive, and drive systems serving major clients like General Motors, Stellantis, Caterpillar, Legrand, Progress Rail, Danfoss and Rockwell Automation. The company also offers electrostatic powder coating, fluidized bed nylon, PVC, PE and vinyl plastisol dip coating.
Varina and I set out to meet with these three business owners whose companies couldn't be more different from one another. We asked them: What makes you successful? What principles guided your decisions? What practices separated you from the average powder coating shop?
As we listened to their stories, revealing how every shop had its own personality and way of operating, the most successful owners shared many of the same core beliefs. Those principles became the foundation of this article.
At Houston Powder Coaters, precision laser cleaning restores clean metal surfaces, providing the foundation for pretreatment, powder coating and long-term corrosion protection. Photo courtesy of Vitracoat.
We landed on the top 10 things necessary to operate and sustain a successful powder shop and have listed them in no particular order.
1.Invest in people. While every organization needs good people, the successful ones intentionally invest in them. It's easy to say people are the greatest asset, but it's much harder to build a culture where employees feel challenged, appreciated and proud of their work. Every successful shop we visited viewed their people as one of the biggest reasons for their success, recognizing that the right culture ultimately translates into a better customer experience.
For instance, Fasie at HPC believes that culture should extend beyond the shop floor and into every customer interaction. “We want every customer to feel like we care about their product just as much as they do.”
Flatten at IPC has built that culture around trust, accountability and empowerment. “From day one, we've stressed honesty and integrity. Anyone can challenge anyone in this company without repercussions. Every voice counts, every job is important, and I hire people smarter than me at their job, then I get out of the way.”
That philosophy has created remarkable stability for Flatten. His business has retained powder coaters for more than 30 years.
2.Understand your costs. Understanding costs, part by part, is critical to running a profitable powder coating operation. In many cases, cost is driven by line time, which can vary significantly depending on part size, geometry, steel type, castings, masking, handling and how the part moves through an operation. Do not shortcut the quoting process until the processing method for the part has been determined.
Walters at Progressive Powder Coatings believes the numbers tell the story. “If you don't know your costs, you don't know how you make money or lose money,” he said.
Fasie concurred. “Everything boils down to understanding what actually makes your business money,” he said, adding that understanding profitability starts with understanding the operation.
Flatten measures every estimate against actual production. “Line time is everything,” he said. “We measure what we thought the job would cost against what it actually cost. If one run is at 78% efficiency and another is at 115%, we're asking why. That's how you improve.”
3.Know your market. Successful business owners know who they are, understand what they do well and recognize where they bring the greatest value. The shop owners mentioned in this article have a clear understanding of the markets they serve, and they resist the temptation to chase every opportunity that came along.
“If you don't know your market, how do you prepare for it?” Walters questioned. “How do you focus on it? How do you avoid things that are outside of it? You can chase the shiny thing, but that's not what we do.”
Fasie believes every business should first dominate its local market. “You have to understand your immediate surroundings. About 70% of your work is going to come organically from the area around you.”
Flatten reminded us that knowing their market also means solving problems their competitors cannot. “The customer had a problem they couldn't get fixed, and we were able to solve it. That's where you have to be creative.
4.Differentiate your capabilities and extend your services. Successful powder coaters evaluate whether they can provide additional value beyond coating the part. Services such as packaging, assembly, labeling, silk-screening, sealer application and other value-added offerings can simplify operations for customers. The more value a shop provides, the more difficult it becomes for customers to replace it.
Walters believes reducing complexity is part of that value. “We cut transportation, reduce lead times and give customers one company to call instead of multiple suppliers pointing fingers.”
Creating a one-stop solution for customers is how Fasie differentiates HPC from competitors. Not only does his company offer powder coating, but to respond to customer demand, he added an accredited patio furniture warranty repair center and preventative care and maintenance services. “You have to become as much of a one-stop shop as possible,” he explained. “The more services you provide, the fewer reasons customers have to look somewhere else.”
Continuous improvement is what Flatten believes differentiates IPC. Beyond powder coating, his facility offers complementary in-house services including liquid coating, sand blasting, thermal stripping and masking.
“The more unique your process becomes, the harder it is for someone else to duplicate it,” he explained. “We built the plant so our customers wouldn't have to go anywhere else, and even after helping customers bring powder coating in-house, many came back because they trusted us.”
5.Be easy to buy from. Customers appreciate companies that are easy to work with. Good communication, responsiveness and following through on commitments build confidence and long-term relationships.
“When customers provide the right information (prior to production), everything becomes easier,” Flatten said. “They know when parts are missing, when there's a problem, before anything ships.”
Walters initiates communication with a customer by asking the right questions. “Sometimes we ask, ‘What do you need? How can we make this work?’ That's part of making it easy.”
6.Retain customers. Finding customers is difficult. Therefore, keeping them is even more important. The best job coaters become trusted partners by helping customers solve problems, reduce risk and grow their own businesses.
“If it costs us a dollar to fix a mistake, we fix it,” Flatten said. “If it costs us $75,000, we fix it. Customers have to know you've got their back.” IPC has built loyalty by standing behind every job, he added.
“We want to partner with our customers,” said Fasie, who builds relationships around shared success. “We want to take as much off their plate as possible. If they grow, we grow.”
7.Sell performance, not just a color. Anyone can quote a color. Successful powder coaters sell performance, technical knowledge, service and confidence. Customers remember the companies that help solve problems before they happen.
"Customers come back because we're giving them what they're asking for and more," Walters said.
Flatten equips his team to understand every customer's needs. “We developed a worksheet for our salespeople, so they don't forget to ask every question. The more information we gather up front, the better we can perform.”
And Fasie believes coaters should become part of the engineering process.
8.Partner with the right suppliers. The best suppliers become an extension of the business. They understand the operation, help solve problems and provide technical expertise that benefits the company and its customers.
“For us, the powder supplier is one of our biggest relationships,” Fasie said. “A good supplier isn't just selling powder; they're helping you build your business.”
Walters shared similar sentiments, explaining that his suppliers know his business so well that they can refer business to Progressive, just as he does for the suppliers.
When challenges arise, Flatten believes true partnerships reveal themselves. “We've had suppliers step up when there was a problem, and we've had one that didn't. That taught us everything we needed to know about partnership.”
9.Stay up with technology and keep innovating. Technology never stops changing, and neither should a powder coating business. Whether it's new equipment, automation, software or emerging technologies, successful companies continually look for ways to improve quality, efficiency and customer value.
Flatten didn't wait for someone else to find a solution to his company’s problem. “We couldn't find software that worked for powder coating, so we built our own. Today, every supervisor can see production, schedules, cameras and reports from an iPad or phone anywhere in the world. Technology should make you better, make you easier to do business with and improve quality."
10.Leadership. The tenth principle is one I added. None of the owners specifically mentioned it, but after listening to every interview, it became impossible to ignore. Every successful shop had a leader with a vision, someone who built the culture, protected the company's reputation, made difficult decisions and refused to compromise on the values that defined the business.
These three owners exemplify all of that, what that embodies, and what that means. I have known all three of them for quite a while, and I can tell you that it was through this experience that I really came to understand them. And I am better for it!
Steve Houston is president at Vitracoat, a family-owned international manufacturer and independent supplier of thermoset powder coatings, established in 1948.