Plating Top Shop Values Benchmarking Survey

When Products Finishing sat down to talk to Matt Fodge, vice president at Gleco Plating (a 2024 PF Top Shop), he mentioned that he reads through the Top Shop benchmarking survey each year, and that the company has participated in for several years. He also understands that earning a Top Shops title does not happen overnight.

“There’s a lot of good information in it, and we like to see how we stack up,” Fodge explains. “It’s cool to see the little improvements each year. You focus on an area, and then you see improvements there. And once you get where you need to be, you focus on another area. Over nine years, we’ve improved and to the same level as the other Top Shops.”

Being recognized this year as a Top Shop for the first time, Fodge, a third-generation owner of the Rowlett, Texas shop, says the company was excited and honored to be named one of the best finishing shops in the country. He points to the employees, company culture and supplier partnerships as the catalysts behind the achievement.

A Growth and Diversity Mindset

Gleco Plating was started in a 1,500-square-foot facility by Glen Gurley, Fodge’s grandfather, in 1979. Since then, the 150-employee company has grown to two

50,000-square-foot facilities in Texas, one in Rowlett and a second in McAllen. Zinc and zinc nickel plating are its largest processes, making up about 50% of its business. Bright nickel, tin, anodize, chem-film, silver, electroless nickel and gold plating are among its other processes. At the two locations combined, the company runs 13 manual plating lines.

“We have manual processes because we’re so diverse,” Fodge explains. “We run a lot of different-sized parts for different industries with different configurations. So, manual lines enable us to be more flexible and to run multiple types of parts on the same line.” He adds that eventually the shop would like to explore automation for some of its plating applications.

Gleco’s customer base is heavy in the automotive industry (35% of its business), but not limited to that industry. Coming in second place is airline/aerospace/aviation industry work at about 25% of the business. The rest of its jobs are in the telecommunications, semiconductor and medical industries.

The company’s mission statement is: “Providing finishing solutions the world can count on.” This applies to all customers and is intentionally open-ended, according to Fodge. The term “finishing solutions” suggests the company is open to providing other finishing services. And recently, it has taken the opportunity to do just that.

Recent Expansion

In August this year, the plating business acquired 3-D Powder Coating, a well-

established Texas company known for its expertise in painting and powder coating. As a result, the company has added powder coating, liquid painting, silk screening, fill-engraving and sandblasting of all types of manufactured products to its repertoire.

The 10,000-square-foot building, located next to Gleco’s Rowlett headquarters, has room to expand to 30,000 square feet. With the acquisition, the finishing shop gained multiple wet paint and powder coating booths with the ability to retrofit automation capabilities.

Team Sports Culture

Like most successful establishments, Gleco focuses on company culture to retain quality employees who desire to learn about the business and wish to provide notable customer service. According to Fodge, the company has several staff members who have been employed there for 40-plus years, and most employees have been there for at least 10 years. He believes the culture management has created over the past several years has inspired talented people to stick around.

While stepping back to access the culture, Fodge started asking employees more questions to understand the extent of their knowledge. “They have skills that we would have never known about if we hadn’t asked,” he says.

Then, he decided it was time for the company to have some fun. Fodge, who has a sports background, created a competitive team atmosphere that involves metrics where teams either “win” or “lose” every day based on the prior day’s metrics. Scores and standings are kept for a 13-week period, and at the end of the quarter, a winning team is recognized.

Management also encourages feedback and sharing ideas from both individuals and the teams. Fodge finds that generating this enjoyable environment boosts morale and motivates the rest of the team. “It has been a huge part of our success over the last few years,” he adds.   

Recognizing excellence by honoring an employee of the month has also been advantageous.

“We have a great team, and they want to win,” Fodge says. “Most importantly, they want to do the best job for our customers.”

Eyes on the Future

To stay abreast of the industry and its latest trends, Fodge makes a point to keep in contact with other finishing shops. He also takes advantage of trade shows and other surface finishing events to gather information and network.

He maintains strong relationships with Gleco’s suppliers, as well. He asks their opinions regarding how the business and its processes can improve for future growth. “Our suppliers have been a huge part of our success over the years,” he says. “We have been very fortunate; we treat them right and we gain loyalty from them as well. It’s not merely a business transaction.”

Fodge has also been contemplating how to best implement automation. The company has added Steelhead software to its processes to help with efficiency.

“Our shop has 100% manual plating lines. While we move more toward automation, we are looking at ways to gain more control over our processes and accelerate training for new operators. Moving to Steelhead has enabled us to do this with QR codes and scanning load bars in and out of process tanks and areas. We can ensure that our operators follow the process correctly every time. This allows us to provide more consistent quality and gives us the ability to respond to our customers faster, which is ultimately what we hope to do.”