Powder Coater Leverages Its Manufacturing Mindset for Success

Fast turnaround time, consistent quality and good communication: these three factors are essential for building strong customer relationships, according to Jay Ridley, co-founder and president of ColorFast Coatings (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and 2024 Products Finishing Top Shop. Ridley and his father, Clay, have a unique perspective on the finishing industry, as they were on the customer side of the powder coating business. The father-son duo once ran a motorcycle manufacturing company that produced thousands of motorcycles, selling them through 60 dealerships around the country. 

To provide quality finishes for their product, they sampled many powder coating options, hiring every powder coater in town. Using the spectrum of different coating shops shined a light on the industry’s strengths and weaknesses. Little did the Ridleys know that their insights would be beneficial for starting up their own powder coating business one day.

The invitation that changed everything

When the financial crisis of 2009 occurred, it became difficult to sell a motorcycle, according to Jay Ridley. Therefore, he and his father were forced to close their business. “We went back to what we knew, which was making metal items,” he explains. “We were building fence gates and helping people with their inventions. We opened our door as an invention and fabrication shop.”

Then, one of its largest neighbors, an oil and gas valve manufacturer, inquired about a powder coating job it needed done with difficult specs. Ridley recalls not knowing a powder coater in the area that could help them. “I said I don’t know anyone who would be good at that. You’ve got such tight tolerances, fast turnaround requirements and a high quality standard.”

Then, the valve manufacturer made a suggestion that forever changed the trajectory of the Ridleys’ business model. “Their next comment was, ‘If you guys don’t have anything to do, why don’t you start powder coating?’ Our first thought was, no, our talents are best used somewhere else,” Ridley says. However, after more thought, they decided to make the leap of faith. “The purpose of a business is to create a service for a customer. So, we had our first customer, but did not have a service.”

From there, armed with insight from a manufacturer’s viewpoint, the Ridleys opened ColorFast Coatings. They built their own powder coating line, which was a small purpose-built line for the parts that the valve company needed to have coated. The following six to eight months consisted of much trial and error, learning about curing times and achieving desired coating thicknesses by working with several powder suppliers.

“In 2010-2011, we began powder coating for that first company with the promise of fast turnaround, which we guaranteed in five days or less and a consistent, measurable quality,” Ridley says. At that point, they could reach all the requirements and then slowly began to add customers with the same needs.

My, how it has grown

Now, this successful powder coating company has expanded its customer reach as well as the services it provides. ColorFast not only coats oil and gas parts but also HVAC components for large units for hotels and malls, high-volume custom wheelchair parts, agricultural solar equipment as well as parts for tech companies’ data center coolers. These cooler components include large format items that are 40 feet long, 12 feet tall and 8.5 feet wide.

“We’ve coated things that are in some of the social media data center sites in New Zealand, Singapore, everywhere, and in large volume,” Ridley says.

Although it started out small with its homemade powder coating system that adorned an overhead conveyor, the shop has added many more capabilities. It added a batch department with batch capabilities, metal blasting

capabilities with manual media blasting, pot blasting, and a few tumble blasting systems (that consist of a rubber belt that tumbles the parts and throws steel shot on them).

Then, in 2021, a GAT automated powder conveyor line was integrated on the shop floor. The system has a five-stage washer with a Parker Ionics 10-gun automated paint booth.

With a broader array of equipment, the finisher now boasts not only powder coating, but masking, unmasking, subassembly, final packing off-line, sticker/decal application, drop shipping, and in-house tooling design.

ColorFast continues to grow by listening to customers’ suggestions regarding processes that it does not offer currently. Requests include larger capabilities for media blasting, and automation in other areas. “We are trying to leverage not just automation but new ideas and concepts that can help us be the most efficient and offer the most recent advances in powder coating,” Ridley says.

Friendly competition

As a former motorcycle manufacturer, Ridley learned that one powder coater cannot be an expert at every job it is asked to do. While one powder coating shop was good at candy apple red coating, it might be terrible at metallic blue coating, he explains, and vice versa for a different shop. But now as a finisher himself, he realizes that something seen as a weakness can be turned into a strength.

Transferring that knowledge, he benefits from working with other nearby powder coaters. He says he sends out a lot of business to other powder coaters because some work is not his expertise. And in return, other powder coaters subcontract out a job to ColorFast. Some shops will send him large jobs that these other companies might not be able to handle.

“I don’t know the percentage of revenue we do like this, but I’d say it’s better than 25% from other shops,” Ridley admits.

Price pressures and the economy

Separate from this friendly competition is industry competitiveness because of inflation. Although inflation seems to be slowing down, Ridley says it has been an obstacle to maintain legacy pricing for customers even though powder cost and chemical cost have increased, as well as the price of employees’ salaries.

“We are trying to keep up with those costs while balancing what to charge a customer,” he says. “It’s a balance between costs rising and revenue decreasing.”

An unknown future economy is another challenge for the coatings industry. The uncertain outcome of a presidential election stirs up concern for many manufacturers, Ridley explains. “For us, business hasn’t necessarily slowed down, but the feeling and the word from customers is, ‘we’re not going to do as much because we are waiting to see what happens’.”