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While many companies in the marine industry today are experiencing less demand for their services, Tamco Professional Coatings is thriving.
The Houma company, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in October, sandblasts and paints anything marine with specialty paints that allow them to endure the harsh environment from the sea’s floor to its surface.
And the company’s business model has allowed them to endure the lowered activity in the offshore industry due to a sustained drop in oil prices.
“We’re diversified,” said Dwayne McClanahan, who co-owns Tamco with his wife, Tamara. “We do dredges. We do rigs. We do boats. We do blowout preventers. We do risers.”
Dwayne said most of Tamco’s competitors only paint one type of craft or structure.
Today, some of Tamco’s biggest clients include Bollinger Shipyards and Weeks Marine. Today, they normally employ 50 to 100 people, averaging around 65, Tamara said.
But 15 years ago, there was just one.
That employee was Dwayne. Before, he worked offshore and lost his eye in an accident. When he came back onshore
“He was in limbo,” Tamara said. “He had lost his eye and he was wondering what he was going to do.”
So he got a job with a marine painting contractor. Dwayne thought he could run a marine painting business better than the contractor could.
“We didn’t quite see eye to eye,” Dwayne said. “So I left on a Friday and started [my own business] on Monday.”
And Tamco was born. He grew the business, painting anything for the water. Between 2000 and 2005, Tamco grew from just Dwayne and Tamara to 30 employees. The growth was explosive. So explosive, that there were negative consequences.
“We grew too fast,” Tamara said. She said that when a small business experiences fast growth, it can get difficult to keep up with the added expenses of more staff and equipment. She said the expenses “snowballed” and a drop in demand for their services started a cascade of problems for Tamco.
Then it got worse. Business more than just slowed. It stopped. Completely.
Dwayne had no jobs, no customers, and nothing to paint.
“We were shut down. There was no work at all,” Dwayne said. “We were closing down. I started selling everything. I had had enough.”
Then Hurricane Katrina swept through southeast Louisiana and submerged New Orleans with its storm surge. If there was no business before, there definitely wasn’t any then.
At the time, Tamara, who is a registered nurse, was working a West Jefferson Hospital. Dwayne was bringing her lunch when a construction manager for Belfor, a company that restores buildings after disaster, brought in a construction worker with a worksite injury for treatment.
The two men started talking and before they parted ways they agreed to meet. The meeting that followed led to sandblasting jobs in New Orleans that kept Tamco alive.
“It really was a blessing in disguise,” Tamara said, speaking of the opportunities after Katrina.
The company was down to two employees other than Dwayne and Tamara. They sandblasted buildings in New Orleans with soda ash to kill and remove mold. The work was enough to keep the business afloat.
Since then, business in the marine sector rebounded and so did Tamco sales. They continued to grow.
Now the company has three facilities in Houma, Morgan City, and another on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and travel throughout the region. All of their equipment is mobile and the company is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Also, Tamco was one of the Safest 70 award recipients from the Louisiana Worker’s Compensation Corporation in 2011 and in 2013. Dwayne and Tamara believe strongly in workplace safety. Their employees undergo extensive safety training.
Both Dwayne and Tamara attribute much of their success to the talented workers and supervisors they’ve hired.
They are one of the few marine painting businesses that offer a full line of benefits to their employees. Tamara said that helps keep the good employees with Tamco.
“It sets the stage for retention,” Tamara said. “Why Tamco has held on for so long is because Tamco is safe. Tamco is available 24/7. That right there is major, because not everybody does it.”
Tamara and Dwayne McClanahan, owners of Tamco Specialty Coatings, kept their business alive after Hurricane Katrina by diversifying into mold removal in New Orleans after the storm.
