March 2006 Industry Leader:

Matt Casto: Franchising Bomanite, Bettering Decorative Concrete Industry

Like many people in the decorative concrete industry, Matt Casto, vice president of business development for Bomanite, grew up in the concrete industry. "My father was a concrete contractor, so from the time I was five years old I was (trying to) help my dad," recalls Casto, adding that he did his first finishing job when he was 12 years old. "Eventually, I decided concrete wasn't for me," says Casto. He was accepted to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he studied for and earned both engineering and business degrees. But concrete came calling—when he got out of college, Casto went to work for a company that sold concrete ready mix admixtures. "I had a lot of customers doing decorative work and doing very well with it," he observes. "[So] I took a leap and started my own business in Colorado with my brother, and for eight years we did decorative concrete work in the Denver metro area, which was an extremely good market at that time (the early 90s)."

In fact, the boom of the decorative concrete market is what Casto says precipitated his getting into business for himself at all. And the Denver market was exploding.

Then, fate stepped in. "I was using QC Construction Products, and I was one of their good customers, so when one of their trainers couldn't make it to the area to talk, QC asked me to step in and lead the training," Casto recalls.

After he finished, one of the QC sales representatives asked Casto if he was interested in doing more of their training, and from then on Casto was conducting QC training across the country.

That, in turn, introduced Casto to the manufacturing side of the business, and after some time, a position opened up at Bomanite.

"At first, I wasn't interested, because I was happy doing the training and having my own business as well," explains Casto. "But then, I realized the opportunities Bomanite offered—international exposure being one of the biggest."

Casto accepted the position and was hired as the technical director at Bomanite, where he conducted training to support the Bomanite franchise base around the world. Bomanite Corporation, the leader in the architectural concrete paving industry for over 50 years, has a network of over 250 specially trained and licensed franchise partners in more than 70 countries worldwide.

His current role as vice president of business development involves overseeing "everything that has to do with how the outside world sees Bomanite," as well as promoting franchising and overseeing technical training. Only Bomanite Franchise Partners have access to Bomanite products, systems, technology, training and tools.

"Since I've been working at Bomanite, I realized that the decorative concrete market is unique; it's a product manufactured in an uncontrolled environment," observes Casto. "And the contractor is the key element of the equation, because they must understand both the product and the environment."

Casto says the decorative concrete industry is ripe for an organization such as Bomanite, one in which contractors can differentiate themselves. "We have a distinct marketing advantage because we have the ability to market a group of contractors...That's our leverage, it's what makes us different," he adds.

Bomanite franchisees receive training and education that enables them to produce consistent products time and time again. Casto says that when he joined Bomanite, there were 110 franchisees, the bulk of which had been with Bomanite on average 20 years, another testament to the consistency of the products they produce.

Since Casto joined Bomanite, the company has also opened up doors by expanding their licensing offerings, which used to be limited solely to imprinting, adding renovation, polishing, pre-cast and GrassCrete.

Bomanite domestic operation has plans to expand rapidly. In the past two years, not only has Bomanite gone from one to five offerings, but they also expanded from 110 to 160 franchisees, with plans to add 50 more over the next three years, for a total of over 300 by 2009.

But perhaps the biggest impact so far is what Casto hears from architects. "Often, when I talk to architects, they are looking for consistency in their projects that are in multiple states/locations (such as for a restaurant chain), which often require more than one contractor to complete," says Casto. "And I'm able to tell them that at Bomanite, we can provide consistency by training our contractors to create specific looks, no matter where they are located."

For now, Casto has plenty to keep him busy. "This is a dynamic industry, which is a huge motivator for me," he explains. "Every year there are advancements in technological capabilities of our product line. We also have the international side, where we license contractors in other countries and help them set up similar business models to what we have here."

In all, Bomanite has carved a niche for itself that just might take the industry by storm. "I think the industry is ready for something like this," Casto notes. "I get four to five requests per day from people interested in becoming a franchisee, which is up from the 10 to 15 requests per year we used to receive."

But at the end of the day, Casto might still be the small child helping his father finish concrete. "Even today I participate in training and events and get my hands dirty—that's exciting to me," he laughs.

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