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Ninety days is not much time to set up a large machine shop, form a new company, find a location and retain large original equipment manufacturing (OEM) clients from a failed firm.

But that’s precisely what Madison-based HB Coatings LLC has done with support and expertise from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Metro East Small Business Development Center and a host of other organizations.

Through multiple connections and time-sensitive resources, the SBDC assisted HB Coatings in a fast-paced, cleanly executed transition that is bringing jobs to the Metro East.

HB Coatings is a full-service thermal spray coating machine shop with clients in a wide range of industries including construction, metals and durable goods. Chairwoman and co-owner Ashley Hunsaker and her husband, Jason, combined her accounting and his sales experience with well-known thermal spray operations expert Duane Boehnke to open HB Coatings in Madison’s Eagle Industrial Park. Jeannie Boehnke is also co-owner of the business.

The genesis for HB Coatings began when Jason and Duane learned July 31 that their employer, St. Louis Metallizing, was shutting down in late August after 60 years in business. The HB Coatings team worked diligently on a business plan in just three months. They obtained financing, rebranded, located space in Southwestern Illinois, hired workers and accomplished all this while retaining the former machine shop’s A-list clients.

As part of the process, Ashley Hunsaker located the Metro East SBDC on Google and contacted SBDC Director Patrick McKeehan.  With one short phone call, McKeehan was fully on-board and ready to help.  

 “We met with Patrick and the SBDC in late June and asked for a range of assistance,” said Hunsaker, who at the time had just given birth to the couple’s third child. “The SBDC quickly helped us fine-tune our business plan, made introductions to potential lenders, connected us with a legal advisor and prepared our team for becoming operational as soon as humanly possible. It was – and still is – an extremely fast-paced, rewarding process.”

One of the SBDC’s more valuable contributions was to familiarize the Hunsakers with the SBA as part of an effort to obtain more than $1 million in asset funding and a working line of credit. The new owners were under considerable pressure trying to recover from four weeks lost in a failed application with a different lender.

McKeehan directed the Hunsakers to Tim Whitten, a representative from SBA-certified microlender Justine PETERSEN. Whitten recommended the couple to Adree Abele at Midwest Regional Bank. Abele’s significant SBA loan experience allowed her to work quickly with the couple to complete the loan packaging and guarantee process.

 “Support from Patrick and Tim helped us secure our loans in record-breaking time,” Hunsaker said. “Adree told us that in the thousands of SBA loans she’s worked on, she has never seen a loan approved more quickly than ours.”

McKeehan was also impressed by the speed of the process. “Ashley and Jason put together a fantastic support team,” said McKeehan. “They followed suggestions, made quick adjustments and built a convincing business case that led to a startup with tremendous opportunities.”

Despite all the inherent complexities of launching a new business in a highly competitive, quality-sensitive industry, the HB Coatings team was able to capture a majority of the former company’s major clients.

 “We’re pushing hard to begin work on the purchase orders accumulated from our new clients during the past 90 days,” Hunsaker said. “Once our key clients learned that we were able to retain the same highly trained staff that the previous company had employed, several clients renewed their contracts on the spot.”

HB Coatings is conservatively projecting revenues to surpass $4 million, with up to eight employees in the first 12 months.

The Metro East SBDC assists new companies like HB Coatings as well as existing businesses headquartered in the nine-county Metro East region of Calhoun, Jersey, Madison, Bond, Clinton, St. Clair, Washington, Monroe and Randolph. It is a service to the community supported by the SBA.

Photo (L-R): HB Coatings ownership team: Duane and Jeannie Boehnke, Ashley and Jason Hunsaker.