There are many coating businesses in the market today, but have you ever asked yourself how one gets into this line of work? How they are formed or what prompts someone or some entrepreneur to go out and start a business to fill this niche? Well this is an interesting case study that shows how we became interested in this industry from a sub market of the coating business; Spray in Bed Liners. Our company is in the auto detailing business, www.detailguys.com and we often service auto dealerships. Our customers need service for spray in bed liners for the pick-up trucks they sell. So we looked around at all the possible Biz Op companies doing this and the franchises too.
We tried to co-brand with Rhino Linings in San Diego, but in the middle of training they sent our first franchisee home. It turned out that Ziebart was concerned that our Detail Guys Super Centers which we were forming was competition to them and they were already co-branding with Rhino Linings. We originally wanted to co-brand with Ziebart since we could up lift their stagnant US franchise sales. They lost many franchisees in a three-year period previously. We were ready to do a deal with them and they decided not to. The Detail Guys Super Centers instead, since they started a little turf war; called Rhino Linings and we said we are willing to co-brand with you and we do not want you co-branding with the Detail Guys. Yet at the same time Ziebart was offering to its franchisees Z-Linings an in-house brand since many of the franchise stores were in territories that Rhino Lining already sold. Rhino only had 28 stores co-branded with Ziebart.
Okay so we went with Permatech because the independent who coats the bed liners of all of our Franchised Car Wash Guy trucks, trailers and boats is a Permatech dealer. So our Coating Guys Centers will have Permatech and not only will we coat linings, of truck beds, we will coat anything. Turns out this was the better option in our case, taking nothing away from Rhino Linings. After seeing the possibilities we had contemplated also establishing trailer units which coat Industrial equipment, tractors and machinery to add to our agricultural, construction and Industrial services: see: www.tractorwashguys.com . This way we can coat everything from a tractor, to a conveyor belt to OSHA approved walkways and trains. Our customers need these services and we already wash their truck fleets, machinery, equipment, boats, ships, etc. Why not add a coating to. We also have ceramic coating available to us, which makes glass at room temperature. www.Adsil.com . We can use this on nearly anything from hand tools, to silver ware, air-conditioning HVAC units to boat hulls and glass is not penetrated from moisture, which causes rust.
So this case study shows how just because a competitor tries to screw with your wholesale distribution vendors you often will find other opportunities available once you start uncovering a few more stones, so think on this. I hope you have enjoyed today's case study story.
"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs