Economic Census Focus on Painting Contractors

By Allen Irish

Coatings manufacturers consider virtually all U.S. households and businesses as potential customers, selling coatings as consumer goods to individuals through a wide variety of outlets, and selling products to producers of durable goods, virtually all of whom use coatings in their manufac­turing operations. However, the painting contractor has always been viewed as a key buying group. Much of the extensive network of paint stores-both company-owned and independent dealers-count the contractor as the central component of their business models, frequently focusing their store operations and assortment on the contractor’s needs.

Given that they are a key customer group, understanding the structure of the contractor market is critical. As discussed in earlier articles (Coatings Tech, February and April 2011), the various federal statistical agencies gather a great deal of informa­tion about painting contractors, most notably in the Economic Census conducted every five years. However, other agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), also capture important information on the contractor market that often parallels that published by the Census. While the Census most recently collected detailed information on painting contractors for 2007,1 and much has changed in the U.S. economy since then, the insight its data provide into the structure of the painting contractor business can still be quite useful once adjusted to the dramatically different construction business climate as it exists in mid-2011.