Crown Polymers is privately owned and part of a larger consolidation of companies owned by American Polymers Corp. It’s a California-based organization, but the headquarters are in Huntley, Illinois, USA, and it’s been around in the coatings and flooring industry for 30-plus years.
Crown primarily manufactures high-performance epoxy and urethane floor coating products for applications ranging from residential garages to commercial and industrial floors. We do a lot of concrete repair systems. Some of our more commercial projects involve automotive garages, car dealerships, airplane hangars, wineries, and food processing.
The company is primarily based in the Midwest, but there is national coverage.
Money Matters
In 2025, one of the most important things we hear about in the market is price. Everybody has at least some uncertainty regarding what’s going to happen with some of the import items, and specifically the raw materials and other products that have been coming in from overseas.
So, people are very price conscious, especially with the potential of price fluctuations. Customers want to make sure that when they buy something, the price stays consistent over time.
The possibility of tariffs, and how those might affect raw materials and finished goods, is a huge talking point. There’s a lot of uncertainty. Crown sources a lot of its raw materials in bulk, so we hedge.
Our customers do value the fact that we make our materials here in the United States with American employees. We pride ourselves on that, and that can be an advantage. If the supplier is overseas, the installer might have to wait for a supplier to come, and there can be communication challenges. Knowing that we’re local and that we make products here, we’ve found that can put a lot of fears at ease.
Common Pain Points
Beyond price, another market driver is product quality, and our potential customers are looking for durability and dependability. They want to know when they when they go to a jobsite and lay down the product, that it’s going to lay down the way they expect it to, and they won’t have to ever go back. They don’t want to have additional warranty work, or rework.
Everything often comes down to the speed of doing jobs. So, some of the pain points are, “My material dries too fast, or it dries too slow.” For example, if a contractor is doing residential garage floors, homeowners want to get back to using their garages.
Our contractors want to know that when we recommend a product for that application and tell them it will dry in X number of minutes or hours, and when they tell their customer that… that it’s true.
Another common question we get is whether the material will hold up to the endurance needs of an end-use environment. So, if a contractor puts a product down in an industrial or commercial space, will it hold up to high foot traffic? Will it hold up to forklift traffic? Will it withstand certain chemicals? If they put it in a winery, will it hold up to grapes and different additives that they’re putting in the products, if it falls on the floor?
Working Together
To experience all the benefits of properly installed, long-lasting floor coatings, it’s critical that installers be familiar with their products, the most effective way to apply them, and know which ones are ideal for the projects they work on.
So much of the success or failure of a job comes down to the prep work and knowing the environment. Installers need to understand what the temperatures are. Is it going to rain? Have they done a good job of profiling the concrete? Is it nice, clean, and profiled?
To help with things like that, Crown offers in-depth contractor training either at their facilities or at our manufacturing plants. These sessions examine various installation steps with a focus on areas such as testing materials, prep work, mixing techniques and drying times, and troubleshooting possible problems.
The bottom line, people want to partner with companies that will have material when they need it, and ones that can also provide them with the support and training they need.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the March 2025 print issue of CoatingsPro Magazine. Reprinted with permission. These comments were initially made on a podcast episode of the CoatingsPro Interview Series.
