Products Finishing Reveals 2024 Qualifying Top Shops

Every year, major coating and finishing shops across North America participate in Products Finishing’s Top Shops program, a program designed by Gardner Business Media to help finishers identify optimal shopfloor practices, and improve business operations and procedures. Resulting reports offer a data-driven analysis of each participating shop’s performance based on numerous key operating metrics to help shops measure their performance against their peers in the industry.

Hundreds of shops participate in Top Shops each year, resulting in a collection of data and statistics that prove invaluable for discovering and assessing areas for growth and improvement, including finishing technology, performance and practices, business strategy and human resources.

Although it might seem challenging to benchmark the diverse range of shops nationwide due to variations in size, specialties and technology, our data research team has designed the questionnaire to account for these factors as much as possible. For example, the questions are structured to adjust for facility size by calculating metrics such as sales revenue per employee or per machine. This approach ensures more accurate comparisons, according to Jan Schafer, director of market research for Gardner Intelligence.

Key findings from this year’s survey show that both qualifying Top Shops and nonqualifying shops saw a decline in sales growth in 2023, though the decrease was less severe for Top Shops. Top Shops reported an average annual sales growth of two-thirds of the previous year, whereas nonqualifying shops saw their sales growth drop to 27% of the 2022 level. This lower sales growth was linked to reduced capital investment in Top Shops, while other shops slightly increased spending. Top Shops adopted a more conservative approach, with increased sales per line and line usage. Top Shops were also more selective in their business pursuits, resulting in higher margins and higher average quote-to-book ratios.

In addition, Top Shops invested more in improvement methodologies such as benchmarking, just-in-time production, productive maintenance and quality management, compared to other shops. Both groups increased their investment in process improvement, with Top Shops dedicating more hours. Overall, Top Shops’ higher investments likely helped them maintain a high customer retention rate of 98% in 2023, while other shops saw a drop in customer retention from 95% in 2022 to 92% in 2023.

2024 Top Shops

In addition to providing custom reports to aid in assessing your business performance, Top Shops also recognizes shops that achieve a set of criteria. Qualifying for Top Shops Status is one of the most coveted and prominent accolades in the industry today — being a Top Shop recognizes those whose business practices set the bar and deserve to be emulated.

The awards are based on two categories, one for electroplating and anodizing operations, and one for paint, liquid coatings and powder coating. Shops may participate in both categories. This year’s qualifying shops are as follows:

Electroplating and Anodizing

Ace Anodizing and Impregnating Inc. (Hillside, Ill.)
AeroDynamics Inc. (Seabrook, N.H.)
American Metal Coatings (Mentor, Ohio)
ChromeTech (Franklin, Wisc.)
Electro-Spec (Franklin, Ind.)
Gleco Plating Inc. (Rowett, Texas)
Great Lakes Metal Finishing Inc. (Erie, Pa.)
Green Bay Anodizing Inc. (Green Bay, Wisc.)
Hohman Plating LLC (Dayton, Ohio)
Incertec (Findley, Minn.)
Industrial Polishing Services Inc. (San Diego, Ca.)
Lincoln Industries (Lincoln, Neb.)
Luke Engineering (Wadsworth, Ohio)
Lustrous Metal Coatings Inc. (Canton, Ohio)
Microfinish (Saint Louis, Mo.)
Miramar Metal Processing Inc. (San Diego, Ca.)
Plateco Inc. (Reedsburg, Wisc.)
Professional Plating Inc. (Brillion, Wisc.)
Reid Metal Finishing (Santa Ana, Ca.)
Surtronics Inc. (Raleigh, N.C.)
The Electrolizing Corporation of Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio)
U.S. Chrome Corp. of New York (Batavia, N.Y.)
West Tech Finishing Inc. (Vaghn, Ontario, Canada)
Wolverine Plating (Roseville, Mich.)

Liquid and Powder Coating

Ace Anodizing and Impregnating Inc. (Hillside, Ill.)
Andrews Powder Coating Inc. (Chatsworth, Ca.)
Axis Peinture (Brossard, Quebec, Canada)
BFG Manufacuring Service (Puxsutawney, Pa.)
ColorFast Coatings (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Colourfast Corp. (Concord, Ontario, Canada)
Fitzgerald Finishing LLC (Detroit, Mich.)
Freedom Finishing Inc. (St. Joseph, Mich.)
Georgia Powder Coating (Gainesville, Ga.)
JIT Powder Coating Co. (Farmington, Minn.)
Militex Coatings Inc. (London, Ontario, Canada)
Performance Powder Coating LLC (Longwood, Fla.)
Professional Plating Inc. (Brillion, Wisc.)
Progressive Coating (Chicago, Ill.)
Surgical Coatings (Sedalia, Colo.)
TLC Metal Restoration Inc. (Mineola, N.Y.)

The Top Spot 

In addition to qualification, the Top Shops program also recognizes the first place shop in each category. This year's first-place ranking Top Shop for the Electroplating and Anodizing category goes to Hohman Plating of Dayton, Ohio. The first-place ranking Top Shop for Liquid and Powder Coating is Militex Coatings Inc. of London, Ontario, Canada.

Congratulations to all of this year’s qualifying Top Shops — the award is a reflection of your team’s hard work and a cause for celebration!