Frank Lewis: Leading the Coatings Group With a Balanced Outlook on Life

Frank Lewis, one of six partners in The Coatings Group, the parent company of Sundek ®, likes to educate, and part of that education involves questioning the use of time.

"Having a life balance is important to running a successful company," he explains. That's why, at a recent educational event, he posed questions to contractors, including, "How do you balance time? How do you find time to add decorative concrete to your business when you're already too busy, and still find time for your family and other things?"

"I always ask myself these questions," he adds. "If you don't find a balance or you wait too long, you'll wake up older and realize you've missed out on life...it's not productive. You need to step aside and look out. You have to balance yourself before you can fix anyone else's problems."

Lewis' wisdom could stem from the fact that he's been in the industry for over 30 years, getting his start in 1973 with Sundek in the Los Angeles, California, area.

In the early 80s, the company expanded to the national level and set up a dealer program based on a unique approach—giving each dealer an exclusive geographic area to market, which allowed each dealer to sell and install the product with a careful eye to the quality necessary for good applications.

"In the early 80s, there were not a lot of alternatives for decorative concrete coatings," recalls Lewis. "The only overlay product out there was for new concrete only, and there were no reliable overlay choices for older concrete."

But once Sundek hit the market, the concept quickly caught on. "It's been copied ever since," Lewis adds. The spray texture systems are the easiest to get into, simplest to train, and the most forgiving way to break into decorative concrete."

Sundek is a coating process that can be applied over existing concrete surfaces as a remodeling tool, with a finish coat that gives an easily cleaned and repairable surface, yet one that allows the concrete to breathe. This finish coat is one of the keys to the success of the Sundek process.

Today, Sundek has a large network of strong, quality conscious dealers. Of those dealerships, the Coatings Group owns 10 corporate dealerships.

In order to become a Sundek contractor, there are a number of steps that must be taken, but that's one good way to be affiliated with the better contractors. A prospective contractor will be asked for a financial statement and business plan—asking him how he would develop and market the product in his area.

"We could have many more dealers if we weren't so concerned how things are done," observes Lewis. "We're very adamant about proper training. They come to installation training at our headquarters in Arlington, Texas, and then we send a trainer out to their location so they get more hands-on training." Sales and marketing knowledge is also an important part of the Sundek training package.

The corporate dealers are like a corporate model. "They're just like going into a McDonalds in California or New York," says Lewis. "They all look the same no matter where they are, and they are run exactly the same. We do it that way because it's consistent and profitable...It's a business system."

That system has helped tap into both residential and commercial markets, particularly the lodging industry, of which Lewis says there is a corporate division of the company focused solely on commercial work. Two of their biggest clients are Marriott Hotels and La Quinta Inns, of which they are the preferred installers of decorative concrete.

If you get Lewis, a member of the Decorative Concrete Council (DCC), started talking about education, it's clear that's where his passion lies. "Proper training for new people coming into this industry is important," he says. "That's why at the DCC we're creating guidelines for all systems, from countertops to overlays, to try to educate installers on quality decorative installation procedures."

Lewis also spoke at a recent educational seminar at The Decorative Concrete Institute in Douglasville, Georgia. "I talked about how the systems and techniques from five years ago are a commodity today, and how what we're using today will be a commodity five years from now," says Lewis.

"It's changing very fast. Because of heightened consumer awareness and Internet communications, we're being pushed by public demand," he explains. "We're finding new and better ways to do things."

"When people know they can get information, that drives it," Lewis adds. "It's all pretty amazing."

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