For Coastal Metal Fab owner Norman Lauze, snow and ice mean lots more sales
Norman Lauze knows there's a market in keeping icy winter roads safe. As owner of Coastal Metal Fab in Topsham, Lauze does a brisk business manufacturing and selling salt spreaders — the bulky contraptions that sit in the backs of pickup and dump trucks and fling salt on icy roads. In the 12 years since the company began making its Downeaster salt spreaders, its sales have grown by 20% each year.
The company, which also makes trailers and dump bodies for trucks, has found a niche in the salt spreader market — a market Lauze says is highly competitive. Even though Coastal Metal Fab is the only spreader maker in Maine and one of only three in the Northeast, Lauze still won't say how much of the company's $10 million in annual revenue comes from salt spreader sales, noting that he doesn't want his competition to know.
Lauze started Coastal Metal Fab in 1979, selling salt spreaders from other manufacturers. But in the 1990s Lauze saw demand spike thanks to what he says were increasing liability issues from icy roads and parking lots.
Drawing on his background in metal fabrication, Lauze decided to make his own salt spreader. Spreaders start with a holding container for the material—which typically is salt or sand. The material then goes through a conveyor belt, drops down into a spinner and spins out up to 40 feet wide. This process can be operated by a gas, hydraulic or electric engine. "I just looked at [other manufacturers] and came up with my own design," he says.
Lauze cites variety as one of the main things that makes his business competitive. For one, he augments sales of salt spreaders with sales of dump bodies and trailers. He also offers 30 different salt spreader designs. His most popular model is a spreader that goes on a pickup truck, but his designs range in size and type of engine.
Regional governments, schools and private businesses are Lauze's main buyers. Because of the company website and the annual exhibitions Lauze does around the country, Coastal Metal Fab sells well beyond the Northeast: The states of Texas and Florida are both customers. And his market has expanded internationally: At recent shows Lauze picked up Chinese and Romanian customers.
Prices vary greatly among the 30 models, but the most popular salt spreader, which attaches to a pickup truck, comes in two prices. A steel model sells for $3,400 and a stainless steel model sells for $4,300. The average lifespan of a steel spreader is anywhere from five to 10 years, and stainless steel spreaders last even longer, says Lauze.
But Lauze's business is heavily dependent on bad weather. Low snowfall one year means low sales the next, because spreaders won't need to be replaced if they don't get used. Last year, Coastal Metal Fab's spreader sales were down 30% from the previous year because of light snow. With last winter's snowfall being equally low, Lauze predicts similarly weak sales this season.
He'll know if his prediction is correct in the next few weeks: Seventy-five percent of Coastal Metal Fab's salt spreader sales occur between September and December, when the company turns out an average of 15 salt spreaders a day.
While Lauze does not have high hopes for this season, he's already looking ahead. He says that if there is heavy snowfall this season, next year's market will be huge. "We're just hoping for snow and ice," he says. "We do a snow dance every day."
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