New venture - powder coating and ???

[billjam]

A subject that is dear to many hearts here is likely to be my next "hobby".

I am close to pulling the pin on buying a powder-coating business. It is a small easy-to-run family-owned business with four employees, great plant, location, customer base and good prospects.
The owner died recently and wife wants to sell.

I am looking for ideas on developing the scope of the business into related areas.
Currently, they don't do any type of blasting, so there is opportunity to add that to the mix. I have already had some mates pressure me into setting up for soda blasting for their pet projects, but I don't think they are planning on paying commercial rates!
My background is in engineering and fabrication, so I'd love to get back into a niche area in that field and out of my current office job if the work is there. The premises are large enough to setup for sand/soda blasting as well as a fabrication and/or machine shop.

I can do the basic powder-coating business without having to give up my (lucrative) day job by having my wife and son involved, but taking the business into new areas will require more of my time.

So guys, feed me some thoughts and ideas ...

[Chocaholic]

Focus on penetrating new markets for the capabilities already in place before diversifying services. Can you sell? An important consideration.

[Southbay356]

get the trade magazines and READ READ READ......

plus all the back issues you can find....

this will give you ideas on new markets and new processes,

[herr_oberst]

Plasma or water jet would be a related industry

[id10t]

Get yer FFL and do refinishing on guns... parkerizing, hot bluing, duracoating, etc. Always a market for quality work in this area, especially hot bluing. The duracoating could fit nicely with other non-spoon stuff as well....

[billjam]

Forget the guns ... I'm in Australia.

I have used laser cutting services in a past life and I was always interested in that, but equipment cost is high ... probably the same for water and plasma, but definitely on the list of interesting stuff to get involved with.

Whatever we do, it will be step by step and yes, developing the market to increase utilisation of current powder-coating plant will be first priority. That just needs some thought and sales effort. However, it's just not in my nature to settle for that when I can see so many other opportunities.

I am kinda assuming that powder-coating today is the same as powder-coating as it has been for years. Anyone here aware of or directly involved with any new directions in this field?

[Chocaholic]

My comment was based on a consideration much like yours. I was restoring a TR-6 many years ago when we lived in Tulsa. The powder-coater I used had a contract with the government to powder coat grenade casings. He also did street-sign posts for another company. Very busy shop.

A whole world of stuff out there to coat!

[Racerbvd]

A good friend owns a Powder Coating business, PowderTech Plus Inc.
They started it when (at least locally) the only people doing powder coating were doing small commercial products, no car parts, no bikes, ect. You could send a note to Richard with any questions, it may take him a few days (yes, they are that busy)but he can give you some good advise. You might check out their FaceBook page too.



https://www.facebook.com/pages/PowderTech-Plus-Inc/307225113250?ref=br_tf

Good Luck..

[Jim Bremner]

Annodizing ?

buy raw unfinished bicycle frames and rims and build semi custom bicycles

Raw unfinished Lawn furniture

[1990C4S]

Polishing? Sandblasting? Chemical stripping?

[Zeke]

Just be open to customer needs and provide good, fast and courteous service and the market will drive your business where it needs to go. That's really the easy way to do this given your time constraints. And that's not over-thinking the process.

Practice making people happy and happy people will be at the door. If you want a niche market you will have to go get it at shows or in targeted advertising. That's the harder way but if can also bring a loyal group of customers.

[madmmac]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Polishing? Sandblasting? Chemical stripping?

This. Pre prep to powder coating would be a sure thing once advertised as available.

Well, that and beer.

[1990C4S]

And plating. If environmental regs allow it.

[Shuie]

Quote de 1990C4S

Polishing? Sandblasting? Chemical stripping?

This. Pre prep to powder coating would be a sure thing once advertised as available.



Well, that and beer.

And e-coat

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Just be open to customer needs and provide good, fast and courteous service and the market will drive your business where it needs to go. That's really the easy way to do this given your time constraints. And that's not over-thinking the process.

Practice making people happy and happy people will be at the door. If you want a niche market you will have to go get it at shows or in targeted advertising. That's the harder way but if can also bring a loyal group of customers.

What Milt said but let me add from the supplier standpoint. The shop needs to be clean. The cleaner, the higher quality of work the more cliental you'll have. Make improvements to the shop if needed. Good luck!!

[TRE Cup]

Media blasting as many of your clientele could show up with dirty parts.

Experiment with various media and pressures to achieve different surface results. There is good demand here in So Cal for these detailed services. Find a local plating company that you can "partner" with: Its good symbiosis.
If you can get into spray coatings, similar to the Specta Brite process, that will open up another avenue for clientele.

[billjam]

I checked out that site Byron ... they do some interesting work ... including whole car bodies!

I have never seen a powder coating shop as clean as this one. They have an amazing system of racks on rails that would put a railway shunting yard to shame. All the racks have sheet metal covers on the top edges that they remove and strip each week and all the hangers that are used for hanging parts are also stripped between uses.
Three gas ovens - 9m x 4m, 4m x 2m, 2m x 2m. Main shop is about 700 sq m (8000 sq ft) and an adjacent unit half that size is just used for storage and parking, so plenty of scope to expand.
Its looking good ... a bit hard to keep my mind on the day job!

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by Shuie

And e-coat

I think the operating cost is too high for piece work...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Not my industry, but a lot of the suggestions here make sense. Offering "cradle to grave" services makes you a one stop shop and therefore appealing to customers. Strip/blast, powdercoat, plating, anodizing, polishing, etc. Lots of ways that you could expand without straying too far from your core competency.

[cstreit]

Yeah clean and prep would be almost mandatory I would think. As mentioned above some complimentary service ideas:

1. clean and prep
2. Anodizing
3. Ceramic coating?
4. Water jetting
5. Certain texture painting. (Like crinkle-coat, etc..)
6. Polishing