About - Coatings Management Corporation

ABOUT US

65+

Years Since 1959

4

Facilities in MI & NC

350,000

Square Feet of Plant

17

Processing Lines

Who We Are

Coatings Management Corp is the corporate home for four metal-finishing facilities that have been protecting and enhancing customers’ parts since 1959. From a single barrel line in Ypsilanti, Michigan, we’ve grown into a four-facility operation across Michigan and North Carolina, running 17 processing lines across 350,000 square feet of plant.

What hasn’t changed in 65 years is the founding principle: supply every need of our customer base while never losing track of quality, service, and competitive pricing. Today that means partnering with manufacturers in agriculture, automotive, electrification, infrastructure, and beyond, on everything from a single critical part to high-volume programs.

CMC handles the sales, engineering, purchasing, and customer support for the four operating brands: Marsh Plating Corporation, Marsh Plating Willow Run, Finishing Services Inc., and Piedmont Plating Corporation. One point of contact, four facilities behind it.

Our Mission

When Harold C. Marsh founded Marsh Plating Corporation in 1959, the company grew on a simple philosophy: supply every need of its customer base, while never losing track of the importance of quality, service, and competitive pricing.

Lines have been added, buildings have been expanded, and people have come and gone. The mission has not.

History

1959

Marsh Plating is founded

Six men with sixty years of combined electroplating experience start a new business in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in the old Tucker Automobile Plant. The operation begins with two manually operated barrel lines, producing small volumes of zinc, cadmium, copper, and phosphate coatings.

1960s

Tenfold growth and a regional reputation

Marsh Plating grows nearly tenfold in its first years and becomes one of the area's largest job shop platers. Capacity and product lines expand to meet customer demand, but the company runs full to keep up with existing work.

1975

Finishing Services Inc. opens

To support continued customer growth, Finishing Services Inc. is founded as a sister operation. It launches with zinc and manganese phosphate coatings, plus cleaning and pickling services for Marsh's customers. Copper, tin, electroless nickel, dip spin, and 3M mechanical coatings follow.

1985–1997

Major plant expansion

Marsh Plating and Finishing Services together invest more than $3 million and add over 45,000 square feet across the two operations. The expansion brings state-of-the-art wastewater treatment, new dock facilities, and modernized process control laboratories online.

Late 1990s–2000s

National footprint and continued modernization

Over $15 million is invested in equipment modernization across the group, and a new facility, Piedmont Plating Corporation, opens in Greensboro, North Carolina, extending the company's reach into the southeastern United States.

2016

Marsh Plating Willow Run opens

A 150,000 square foot facility opens in Ypsilanti to support continued growth of the Michigan operations. Willow Run is renovated end-to-end and outfitted with new plating and treatment equipment. It currently runs rack zinc-nickel, rack electroless nickel, tin, and aluminum conversion coatings.

Today

Four facilities. 17 processing lines. One team.

Marsh Plating, Marsh Plating Willow Run, Finishing Services, and Piedmont Plating employ more than 200 associates and generate annual sales in excess of $25 million. Together the four facilities encompass over 350,000 square feet and house 17 fully automatic plating lines capable of producing nearly all high-volume coatings.

Environmental Stewardship

Since 1973, when the U.S. Clean Water Act became law, and federal effluent-discharge standards were imposed on the metal-finishing industry, Coatings Management Corporation has been actively engaged in developing innovative approaches to meet and exceed these standards. It has been our corporate goal to reduce discharges to water and air to levels substantially below those mandated by law.

Coatings Management Corporation is committed to a program of continuous environmental improvement, which will assure that over the long term we will have no negative impact on our workers, our community or the environment. At the same time, we feel that through participation in programs such as the EPA Common Sense Initiative, we will be able to promote innovative and environmentally safe programs that will help make these goals achievable.

Today we continually research and trial new and less toxic chemistries and processing techniques to reduce our environmental footprint. We monitor our suppliers and how they source their raw materials to meet the conflict and extended mineral reporting requirements.