When you’ve done business with royalty, having the word “Kool” in your name is appropriate. The Kool factor increases when you’ve applied a powder coating to the interior of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant in West Virginia. Then comes the fact that you’re a female-owned-and-run Indigenous business and also proudly Canadian-owned. But Kool kicks into overdrive when you have an environmentally sound product that can replace environmentally unsound – and also more expensive and complicated – products.
Kool Koatings’ Cerakote product is the cheaper and cleaner alternative to CARC (chemical agent resistant coating). Traditional CARC is so toxic that handlers have to wear hazmat suits! Kool Koatings’ alternative Cerakote can be handled without special equipment and does not contain any PFAs (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) or VOCs (Volatile organic compounds). Cerakote is also faster. When CARC is in use, the throughput takes days and weeks; Cerakote takes minutes and hours. A product like that can save manufacturers millions per year with increased life cycle alone.
Full-Service Fabrication and Coating
It’s simpler than one might think. Bryan Cribbett, CEO of Kool Koatings, about his production method
Kool Koatings can produce more than 30,000 parts per month with a small number of employees working one shift, and they can do it in a relatively small space. They use a unique, state-of-the-art work system design that includes an inspection of 100% of all the processed parts in each phase of production.
Kool Koatings began in 2013 doing hydrographics (transferring a design to a three-dimensional surface) and then quickly added polymer ceramic coating to their suite of services. But what kickstarted their business was being hired to apply hydrographics to the interior of the King of Thailand’s Boeing jet. With this work, they acquired the equipment (they needed hundreds of new parts) and gained the experience to apply hydrographics to 13 more jet interiors for JetSuiteX.
Kool Koatings now:
- Applies their hydrographic and coating services to anything from high-end office buildings in the U.S. to tiny rifle optics close to home.
- Makes metal signs, custom fire pits, and lawn decorations using high-definition plasma cutting.
- Does laser engraving – for instance, logos and serial numbers.
Kool Koatings uses a variety of coatings depending on the need, whether it’s for heat resistance or electrical insulation. Any of the coatings can be hydrophobic, which means that water, oil, and grease won’t stick to them. The coated products are therefore easy to clean, need less maintenance, and have a longer life cycle. One of the coatings the company uses is 40% slicker than teflon.
Enjoying the Bay of Quinte Advantage and Supporting Job-Seeking Youth
I can’t reiterate enough the importance of small and medium businesses taking on these co-op kids to help educate them and train them. Bryan Cribbett, CEO of Kool Koatings
The number of employees working for Kool Koatings varies according to the amount of work – anywhere from 10 employees to 3. They also bring in high school co-op students. Bryan Cribbett, CEO of Kool Koatings, feels very strongly about that. These students are, after all, the future workforce.
Kool Koatings does all its work and administration out of its facility in Belleville. The facility is large enough to house their 12-foot bake oven – needed to apply powder coating to parts of that length – a 30-foot spray booth, and capacity for high-batch volume of smaller parts. The facility also has a shipping dock, making shipping and receiving easier. Kool Koatings now services clients across Canada from coast to coast.
Kool Koatings has access to the same Bay of Quinte advantage available to all businesses in the region: economic development support from the organizations working out of the Bay of Quinte Business Centre, located on the Loyalist College campus in Belleville:
- Quinte Economic Development Commission (QEDC),
- Trenval Business Development Corporation, and
- Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).
Bryan notes that many businesses rely on word of mouth, and QEDC and Trenval provide those opportunities to connect. Bryan also names BDC as especially supportive of small- and medium-sized Enterprises.
Learn more about how the Quinte Economic Development Commission (QEDC) supports businesses like Kool Koatings in Bay of Quinte.
