In most finishing operations, growth is often measured in square footage, throughput, and headcount.
But at Georgia Powder Coating in Gainesville, Georgia, growth has long been defined by something less tangible, and arguably more difficult to sustain: a deeply embedded culture of service, repetition, and care for both customers and employees.
GPC officers include, from top left, clockwise: Counte Cooley, Chairman, Principal Shareholder and Co-Founder; Dallas Cooley, Chief Servant and CEO; Stanley Phillips, Chief Financial and Production Officer, Co-Owner and Co-Founder; Meagan Gaillard, Chief Operations Officer; Orlin Lainez, Operations Manager; Jason Peck, Quality Control Manager; Daniel Reyes, Shipping Manager; and Dean Coleman, Sales Manager.As the company approaches its 27th year in business and prepares for a facility expansion that will more than double its footprint, Chief Servant and CEO Dallas Cooley sees the moment not as a finish line, but as the next step in a deliberate, values-driven journey.
“When we set out on the service aspect years ago, we wondered whether anybody in manufacturing would care,” Cooley says. “In other words, is it just processing parts? And there’s very little emotion there. There’s very little interaction with people that matter. We really didn’t know.”
That snapshot alone places Georgia Powder Coating among the more substantial independent powder coaters in the Southeast. Yet size has never been the company’s primary focus. Instead, leadership made a conscious decision years ago to invest in service as a competitive advantage—at a time when many manufacturers questioned whether service even mattered in a transactional, price-driven environment.
Betting on Service in a Manufacturing World
Georgia Powder Coating currently operates out of approximately 30,000 square feet.For Georgia Powder Coating, the decision to prioritize customer experience was not based on industry precedent. In fact, there was little to draw from within manufacturing itself.
Instead, the company looked outside its own industry for inspiration.
“You can think of hotel chains like the Ritz Carlton, or even fast food now with Chick-fil-A,” Cooley says. “They just operate differently with the customer as the focus.”
The risk was clear: service takes time, training, and consistency. But the payoff, it turned out, was equally clear.
“It turns out it does matter,” he says. “It’s people behind every PO, and they do care, and they do want to know that you care about their project and their product as long as it’s in your building. So that’s paid off well for us.”
That philosophy reshaped how Georgia Powder Coating approached everything from quoting to problem resolution. Customers were no longer just job numbers moving through a system—they were partners entrusting their products to the company’s care.
Making Culture More Than a Slogan
The planned expansion will add just over 32,000 square feet—more than doubling the facility’s size.Embedding that mindset across an organization with nearly 100 employees requires more than a mission statement. According to Cooley, it requires relentless repetition and real-world application.
“If you talk about it until you are about to vomit, you have just begun to speak about it enough,” he says. “That’s an exaggeration, but I think that’s the mantra of it.”
At Georgia Powder Coating, values are not treated as wall décor.
“This is not part of a plaque we’re going hang on the wall. We’re going live this out,” Cooley explains. “And to do that, we have to talk about it and put it in context to real-world situations.”
Those situations often arise when something doesn’t go as planned—an issue with a part, a delivery challenge, or a customer concern. In those moments, leadership asks a consistent question.
“Once you start becoming who you say you are, you begin to attract like-minded people who want to work for that organization,” he explains.
“How are we going to apply our mission and core values to make sure we’re who we say we are and being authentic in that?” Cooley says.
The answer, he believes, lies in consistency.
“I think it’s just repetitions, repetitions,” he says.
Over time, that repetition has helped align employees at every level around a shared understanding of what Georgia Powder Coating stands for—and how each individual contributes to that promise.
Founding in the Back of the Poultry Processing Warehouse
Georgia Powder Coating is among the more substantial independent powder coaters in the Southeast.Cooley’s father, Counte, and business partner Stanley Phillips started Georgia Powder Coating in 1999, in the back of a poultry processing warehouse, when they saw a need in their community for a coatings provider. Counte is GPC’s Chairman, Principal Shareholder, and Co-Founder; Phillips is Chief Financial and Production Officer, Co-Owner, and Co-Founder. When the company started, Dallas was one of four original employees and learned his craft by hanging parts and operating a forklift.
Now, the GPC team is led by strong leadership, with many of its managers and supervisors having started as Cooley did. The management team includes:
- Meagan Gaillard, Chief Operations Officer
- Orlin Lainez, Operations Manager
- Jason Peck, Quality Control Manager
- Daniel Reyes, Shipping Manager
- Dean Coleman, Sales Manager
- Chewy Berrun, Lead Bidding and Estimating Specialist
- Kevin Crandall, Bidding and Estimating Specialist
- Ashley Day, Operations Associate
- Cassie Garrison, Operations Associate
- Marsha Gladen, Solutions Specialist
- Laura Sandoval, Operations Associate
- Hunter Rafus, Solutions Specialist
- Hannah Moore, Customer Service
- Vickie Ellison, Solutions Specialist
- Hannah Oldroyd, Bidding and Estimating Specialist / Executive Assistant To Ceo
- Nelson Banegas, Chaplain
Attracting the Right People
One of the unexpected benefits of living out those values, Cooley says, has been the type of talent the company attracts.
“Once you start becoming who you say you are, you begin to attract like-minded people who want to work for that organization,” he explains. “So they begin to seek you out and say, ‘Hey, I am attracted to what you guys are doing and who you say you are and how you operate.’”
That dynamic changes the hiring conversation entirely.
“So then you begin to bring on A players just as a matter of their wanting to be in an organization where you’re winning and know what winning looks like,” Cooley says.
In an industry where workforce challenges continue to dominate conversations, Georgia Powder Coating’s approach underscores a broader trend: culture has become a differentiator not just for customers but also for employees.
Preparing for the Next Chapter
That people-first mindset is now shaping one of the most significant investments in the company’s history. Georgia Powder Coating currently operates out of approximately 30,000 square feet. The planned expansion will add just over 32,000 square feet—more than doubling the facility’s size.
“And we’re excited about it,” he says. The decision was not made lightly. Like many manufacturers, the company faces the challenge of planning for an uncertain future.
“Moving is expensive in the finishing industry. When you start talking about moving washers and huge ovens and all the rest, it gets very expensive to move.”
“The difficult thing — as everybody knows — is predicting the future,” Cooley says. “That’s very difficult when you look at an expansion of this size.”
Rather than rushing, the team is taking a measured approach.
“We’re just taking it one step at a time right now and making sure that we’re doing it wisely and changing it on paper before we build something and need to change it later,” he explains.
Expanding in Place
For finishing operations, relocation can be prohibitively expensive. Georgia Powder Coating recognized that early on.
“Moving is expensive in the finishing industry,” Cooley says. “When you start talking about moving washers and huge ovens and all the rest, it gets very expensive to move.”
That reality shaped the company’s long-term strategy.
“We’ve always known we would like to expand where we are if possible,” he explains.
Acquiring adjacent property provided the breathing room needed to make that vision a reality, allowing the company to grow without disrupting operations or customer commitments.
Why Expansion Is Necessary
The expansion is not being driven by a single bottleneck, but by a convergence of needs.
“We’ve outgrown our offices. We’ve outgrown our bathroom demand,” Cooley says. “We’ve outgrown our parking demands. We’ve outgrown our storage demands.”
Production capacity itself is not the primary constraint.
“As far as capacity for production, we are not there,” he explains. “We can probably produce more throughput than our building can store and contain until ready for shipment.”
“We are pretty narrowly focused on what we do. We don’t venture far outside of powder coating. But as far as the industry goes, we’re willing to listen to anybody’s projects.”
That imbalance creates daily challenges.
“All it takes is a couple of wrinkles and some product that lingers, and space becomes an issue,” Cooley says.
The additional square footage will help relieve those pressures while enabling process improvements.
“We hope to add a batch oven,” he notes. “And then our office workflow will be much better as well.”
Understanding the Timeline
Even with careful planning, construction timelines can test the patience of manufacturing leaders.
“I am learning that when it comes to civil engineering plans and architects and that kind of world, they operate on different schedules than the manufacturing world,” Cooley says. “It seems like everything in manufacturing is yesterday.”
If plans align, the company hopes to begin construction in the spring, though Cooley is careful not to overpromise.
“That’s not in stone. We’ve still got a little planning left to go,” he says.
One reason Georgia Powder Coating has grown steadily is its diverse mix of customers and industries.
“It’s amazing, and it’s one thing that keeps this business so fun… the variety of industries we get to intermingle with,” Cooley says.
That mix includes architectural projects, aerospace work, and everyday industrial components.
“We’re doing some of the more mundane electrical enclosures work that you would walk by on a street corner and not think anything about,” he notes.
Diversity provides resilience. As one industry slows down, another may be picking up, Cooley says, and that’s always served them well.
At the same time, the company remains disciplined about what it does—and does not—offer.
“We are pretty narrowly focused on what we do. We don’t venture far outside of powder coating,” he says. “But as far as the industry goes, we’re willing to listen to anybody’s projects.”
Investing in Employees as Families
Perhaps the most defining aspect of Georgia Powder Coating’s expansion is its focus on employee well-being. The company’s growth has placed increasing strain on shared spaces—break rooms, restrooms, and parking areas.
“They have been patient with us as far as alleviating some of those just minor discomforts,” Cooley says. “But day in and day out, they could wear on you a little bit.”
Addressing those issues is central to one of the company’s core values.
“One of our core values is GPC family,” Cooley explains. “We value our GPC family and the families it represents, meaning not just the employee, but their spouses and their children.”
That value shapes how leadership views the work environment.
“Where is mom, dad, brother, sister? What work environment are they going to be in day in and day out?” he asks. “We take that seriously.”
“Hopefully, this expansion will provide a lot better environment for everybody throughout the organization. So we’re excited about it.”
Employees are actively involved in shaping the expansion plans.
“As the plans develop, we’re sharing that with the employees, and they’re getting excited as well,” Cooley says. “They’re giving us invaluable input to that process as well.”
Some of the most impactful changes have come directly from employee feedback.
“They’ve given us absolutely wonderful changes and suggestions already,” he adds.
The Georgia Powder Coating team in Gainesville, Georgia.
Looking Ahead With Focus
As Georgia Powder Coating prepares for its next phase, Cooley remains grounded in the principles that brought the company this far. Growth, he believes, does not excuse complacency.
The expansion represents a significant investment—not just in equipment and concrete, but in people and relationships. And while the additional space will make operations more efficient, the company’s leadership understands that culture must continue to scale alongside it.
For Georgia Powder Coating, the future is not about chasing competitors or trends. It is about continuing to listen, continuing to repeat what matters, and continuing to care for customers, employees, and the families connected to both.
“Hopefully, this expansion will provide a lot better environment for everybody throughout the organization,” Cooley says. “So we’re excited about it.”
