Q. What is the official name of your company?
A. Polyguard Products, Inc.
Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?
A. Polyguard has made pipeline corrosion coatings since 1950. We are a 100 percent employee owned company, and most products we sell are products which we invented rather than copied from competitor’s products.
Q. Where is your company located?
A. Ennis, TX.
Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?
A. In 1950 by Robert M. Nee and Frank McNulty.
Q. What is your company’s primary business activity?
A. Manufacture of corrosion coatings and waterproofing. Polyguard’s Pipeline Division has been active in the pipeline protective coating industry for more than 50 years. This division has designed, manufactured, and introduced a number of innovative underground pipeline coatings and girth weld coatings, which have become commercially accepted as standards for the industry. They are both non-shielding coatings and soil stress tolerant.
Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?
A. Lots of them however, many oil companies don’t like to have their name publicized, and we can’t list them. We are in the process helping one oil company stop corrosion on many, many miles of pipe in Northern Alaska. We solved a major corrosion problem downhole in thousands of oil wells saving several oil companies MANY millions of dollars; that’s the type of innovative products we are capable of bringing to market to solve problems.
Q. How many employees does your company have?
A. We currently have around 90 employees.
Q. Describe the equipment your company uses and is there any new equipment purchases planned?
A. We are in our 21st successive year of sales growth, so we are always expanding, updating, and improving our manufacturing and laboratory capabilities.
Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?
A. In the last 3 years we have added 1 million gallons of raw material storage.
Q. Is the company changing any of its services or products?
A. Not so much changing as introducing new, such as the two part epoxy we introduced in 2012, several insulation vapor proofing, weatherproofing, and cladding products for commercial and industrial insulation. Our Architectural division is growing in a very difficult time for the construction industry; this is due again to innovative new products.
Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?
A. Innovation – we have always had more technical people than sales people. Our original product line, corrosion coatings for steel pipelines, remains strong and growing today. In 1970 Polyguard introduced architectural waterproofing membranes. In 2002 Polyguard introduced RG-2400® anti-corrosion gel, an innovative patented technology which successfully solves the problem of corrosion under insulation. In 2003 Polyguard launched the Underseal™ system to offer protection against termites, pests, radon gas, moisture, insecticides/pesticides as well as provide waterproofing and crack reduction in concrete structures.
Polyguard’s highway waterproofing membranes, introduced in the early 1970’s, have been specified by most major DOT’s for use on pavement and bridges.
With our ISO 9001 certification, Polyguard is committed to maintaining a high level of quality in both product manufacture and product development.
Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?
A. We are now growing rapidly internationally, including Canada. We have also become the primary products used on ammonia refrigeration systems.
Q. What is the most challenging work/contract the company has undertaken?
A. Waterproofing the Ballpark at Arlington. Solving the downhole corrosion issues in Alaska.
Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work your company undertakes?
A. We do nothing but manufacture, so the answer to that would be R&D and new product development and introduction.
Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?
A. Making the transition from being a good small company to a good large company.
Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company?
A. They tend to stay a long time because their Employee Stock Ownership (a retirement plan) keeps getting bigger.
Q. What is your company’s safety record? What steps does the company take to ensure a safe work environment?
A. We have implemented the DuPont “STOP” safety program, which is raising awareness.
Q. What is the address of your company’s Web site?
A. http://www.polyguardproducts.com
