For Magnum Powder Coating owners Nancy and Steve Couturier and their son Matt, it was always the plan that their son would take over someday when the parents retired from their Comstock Park, Michigan, business, which they have owned for more than three decades.
Steve and Nancy and their son, Matt.That long-term plan sped up quickly in 2019, on a snowy stretch of road near their shop, when Steve was on his way to pick up their grandsons at school while Nancy ran the company that day.
“It was Papa’s day to spend afternoons together with grands,” Nancy recalls, adding that her brother stopped in the shop shortly after Steve left and said there was a terrible head-on collision down the road.
“He said it was a big blue Chevy truck,” she says. “Steve drives a big blue truck.”
Matt sprinted out the door to check on the accident, and it was, in fact, Steve, who was unconscious with several injuries. The other person was texting, looking down, and crossed over into oncoming traffic. Steve had less than a second to respond and applied the brake.
Steve’s injuries required several surgeries and years of lasting pain; he was also absent from the shop for several months, as was Nancy, as she helped nurse him back to health. Matt stepped in immediately and ran the operations while his parents were mostly out of the office and away from the shop floor.
“He wasn’t overly confident, but he displayed genuine enthusiasm and a heart to learn,” Nancdy says. “I recall that he caught parts and jobs that were made wrong, reached out to customers on the fly, and saved time and money various times in this manner. He isn’t just filling in; his heart is in it, and he wants to do well.”
A Leap of Faith in 1992
What started as roughly 3,000 square feet has since grown to about 18,000 square feet.The roots of Magnum Powder Coating trace back to Steve Couturier’s early career working in powder coating at a chair manufacturing company. He was the lead powder coater and learned all the equipment and how to set it up correctly every day.
After nearly a decade of experience, an unexpected conversation with the company’s owner changed everything.
“The owner called Steve in and said, ‘What are you doing here? You could be better utilized running your own company,” Nancy recalled.
The idea planted a seed. In 1992, with a three-year-old child and a newborn at home, the Couturiers leaped, as many entrepreneurs understand all too well: they started their own business.
“That was the same year Matt was born,” Nancy said. “We had a three-year-old and a newborn. We just dove in. We started in a two-stall garage, and we just worked our way up as we had more work.”
Growth came steadily. Eventually, the Couturiers moved operations to storage units on West River Drive.
“We ended up having 12 storage units,” Nancy said.
From there, an opportunity arose that would define the company’s future. They got lucky when the building they are in now came up for sale just down the street from their former location.
“We’ve tried to remain not the biggest, but the best,” Nancy said. “We stand behind 100% of what we do.”
By 2003, Magnum Powder Coating moved into its current facility. What started as roughly 3,000 square feet has since grown to about 18,000 square feet.
“We’re still very small,” Nancy said. “But we pack a lot of line space, and we have quick turnaround.”
Efficiency has always been central to the company’s operations.
“We rely on efficiency,” Steve added.
Choosing Diversification Over Volume
One strategic decision has helped Magnum Powder Coating remain stable through economic cycles: diversification.
“We’re very diversified,” Nancy said. “We tend to stay away from automotive.”
The decision came after early experiences supplying the automotive sector.
“We did the clear coat on the Dodge Viper gas cap for quite a few years,” Steve said.
But the demands of automotive production proved incompatible with Magnum’s business model.
“They were very demanding,” Nancy said. “And we were a small business. They wanted to own us.”
Rather than chase high-volume contracts that could dominate the shop’s schedule, Magnum focused on serving a wide range of industries.
“We’ve tried to remain not the biggest, but the best,” Nancy said. “We stand behind 100% of what we do.”
That philosophy shaped the shop’s niche.
“We specialize in rack building and the hard-to-accomplish finishes,” Nancy explained. “The kind that other people have failed at—they come to us, and we can troubleshoot with them.”
Magnum offers conventional powder coating, chemical stripping, and sandblasting services. The team also maintains its own racks and hooks to ensure cleanliness and consistency.
“We maintain all of our equipment here,” Nancy said. “Our racks and hooks are on a constant cycle, so we’re always keeping clean tooling.”
Equipment Designed for Flexibility
Magnum Powder Coating’s facility reflects its emphasis on versatility.
The shop features a 1,000-foot conveyor line with a large washer installed during an expansion in the mid-2000s.
“We started adding bigger equipment around 2005 or 2006,” Nancy said. “We have an offline oven that’s eight by eight by twenty-four feet. It takes a part size of six by six by twenty feet long.”
The layout separates custom work from production runs.
“The conveyor runs around the outside,” she said. “The custom area is more centered on the inside.”
This allows Magnum to handle both production orders and specialized projects simultaneously, such as signage, office furniture, food equipment, and conveyors for the postal system and rock quarries.
Their customers ship products around the globe.
“Some of our customers ship out to India,” Matt said. “Our parts go everywhere.”
The Impact of Global Manufacturing
Like many finishing shops in the United States, Magnum felt the impact when manufacturing shifted overseas. They had a robot they used for high-volume jobs, but when some customers moved production to China, those volumes disappeared.
“A lot of things went to China, and we lost the coating for those jobs,” she said.
The robot remains in the facility, waiting for the day when reshoring trends bring those contracts back.
“We’re holding onto it,” Nancy said. “And we’re starting to see some of those parts transition back into the U.S.”
Matt agrees the shift is noticeable.
“We are starting to see some of those parts transitioning back,” he said.
Word of Mouth Still Wins
One unusual aspect of Magnum Powder Coating is its approach to sales: there isn’t one.
“We don’t have outside salespeople,” Nancy said.
Instead, the company relies entirely on word-of-mouth referrals. And their location helps as well.
“We probably get 15,000 to 20,000 cars a day driving by,” she said.
“He’s very hands-on,” Nancy said. “Customers tell us all the time that he makes them feel like they’re the only customer.. He’s got all the customers at his fingertips.”
But it’s their reputation that closes the deal.
“We tell new clients we’re not about the best price,” Nancy said. “Our goal is to provide the best finish on every single surface that comes in here. We try to educate potential customers as they come in, and let them know we’re going to stand behind everything we do.”
A Family Business in Every Sense
Magnum Powder Coating truly is a family operation. Matt Couturier grew up around the shop.
“When I was old enough to go into the garage when he was working, I was always out there too,” Matt said. “I found a passion for it at a very young age.”
However, Matt didn’t immediately join the business full-time. His parents encouraged him to gain outside experience first.
“Our requirement was either a trade school or college,” Nancy said.
Matt instead entered the workforce in robotics programming for an automotive supplier.
He worked for about five years in robot programming, but eventually realized his future might lie back at Magnum. He told his parents several years ago that he was interested in returning, and since then, he has become a central part of operations.
“He’s very hands-on,” Nancy said. “Customers tell us all the time that he makes them feel like they’re the only customer.. He’s got all the customers at his fingertips.”
Working With Family
Running a family business comes with its own dynamics. The husband-wife and parent-child dynamic can become a bit tedious at times.
“I stay in my lane in the office,” Nancy said. “And they stay in their lane in the shop. You have to trust each other that you’re doing the right thing.”
“We built a designated blast room out of a 40-foot shipping container,” Matt said of the system that includes a large dust collector for efficiency. “You can stand five feet away from somebody sandblasting and not feel a grain of sand hit you.”
That doesn’t mean disagreements never happen.
“We’ve gone into the bathroom and had a screaming match before,” Nancy says with a laugh. “It’s all for the benefit of the company.”
Matt agrees that the family dynamic can be both challenging and rewarding.
“It used to be really tough,” he said. “But it works.”
Investing in Employees
Like many manufacturers today, Magnum faces workforce challenges. Ideally, they should have about 14 employees, but right now they have 10.
Despite offering competitive pay and benefits, hiring remains difficult.
“We’ve had a sign out front, and we don’t even get applicants,” she said.
The company offers benefits uncommon in smaller finishing operations.
“We have a 401(k) plan,” Nancy said. “We pay 90% of health insurance and provide life insurance. We try to take care of them.”
Magnum also invests in improvements every year, and the plan is to make substantial improvements to the operation through new equipment or expanded capabilities.
A recent example was the addition of a new blast room.
“We built a designated blast room out of a 40-foot shipping container,” Matt said of the system that includes a large dust collector for efficiency. “You can stand five feet away from somebody sandblasting and not feel a grain of sand hit you.”
Steve designed much of the system himself.
“Steve is a genius when it comes to innovation,” Nancy said. “He can see things that people can’t see.”
Planning the Next Generation
Another milestone is approaching for Magnum Powder Coating, as the Couturiers are planning a transition to the next generation. The plan is to transition the ownership over to Matt sometime around 2027.
“We’re not leaving,” Nancy emphasized. “This is our baby.”
But the shift will allow the founders to step back slightly.
“We might take a vacation here and there,” she said.
The company is also financially positioned for stability.
“Since 2008, we learned a lot,” Nancy said. “Now we’re debt-free. We encourage debt-free personal living, too.”
Matt says he understands the responsibility that comes with continuing a family legacy, and one of the biggest things he wants to do is to squash that stigma of second-generation businesses.”
Sometimes customers assume he’s simply inheriting success.
“They’ll say, ‘Let me just talk to mom and dad,’” Matt said. “I’ll always be trying to live up to how they ran the business and keep that reputation. Keep it going smooth, expand, and keep it growing.”
