Forty Years Later, The Founding Vision Remains In Place.
Spray Equipment & Service Center, Inc. was founded in 1969 by Doug and Vonnie Spatz. The company's purpose was to distribute automotive paint and application equipment. In early 1970 Doug approached Al Hammar about leaving Sherwin-Williams. At that time Al had been manager at the dowtown Wichita Sherwin-Williams for several years. Al decided to make the move on one condition: Spray Equipment & Service Center had to drop the automotive paint line and focus exclusively on distributing finishing equipment to industry. Doug and Vonnie agreed and on March 1, 1970, Al joined in with Doug and Vonnie.
Doug handled the parts department and the service department, Vonnie handled the administration, and Al was in charge of sales. Times were lean and the hours long. The base business was built account-by-account, transaction-by-transaction. Al was on the road several nights most weeks, and a lot of Saturdays were spent in the store. Spray Equipment & Service Center began to prosper modestly, and the groundwork was laid for the company we know today that has four facilities and does business primarily in North America, but also in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Spray Equipment & Service Center started out as a Graco and Binks distributor. When Al joined Spray Equipment the DeVilbiss line came with him from Sherwin-Williams. The hard work paid off and in 1979 Doug, Vonnie, and Al sold the company. Doug and Vonnie retired while Al ran the company under new ownership before buying back the company in 1983. The economy was in a recession and the previous owner had drained most of the equity out of the company. When Al bought Spray Equipment back, total equity was $1,402 and the future of the company was very much in doubt. Eventually, Al secured an SBA loan, debts were consolidated, and capital became available.
Since that time, Spray Equipment & Service Center has expanded its geographical presence with the purchase of the Springfield, Missouri facility in 1985, the Omaha, Nebraska facility in 1988, and the Dallas, Texas facility in 2005. The first store and corporate office still remains in Wichita, Kansas. Each facility maintains a complete inventory and has an on-site service department. Spray Equipment also has sales offices in several major cities in the Midwest. Spray Equipment carries on of the largest inventories in the business, over $1.5 million in parts and equipment. The company started out with just three distributors and now has over ten distributors.
SprayLab, a state-of-the-art testing and training facility, was completed in 2000 at the Wichita facility and sets Spray Equipment apart from any other distributor in the region. It gives the company the capability to test a wide array of industrial and protective coating application methods and curing processes.
In 1997 Al stepped down as President of Spray Equipment & Service Center. His son, Mark Hammar, who had graduated from Wichita State Universsity with a degree in Business Administration took over the family business as the new President of Spray Equipment. Al remained on as the corporate director.
What started as a two man shop in 1969 has now grown to over 50 employees based in seven states. Doug and Vonnie enjoyed the retired life together until she passed away in March of 2006. Now days, you can find Doug on the golf course or working in his yard. Al is retired for the most part. When he isn't busy with his collection of Cushman scooters and trucksters, he stops by the Wichita facility to lend his expertise where he can. Both Doug and Al make an appearance at the annual company Christmas Party where they enjoy visiting with the new faces of the company.
Some faces have come and gone while others have remained the same, but one thing hasn't changed. Spray Equipment & Service Center is still committed to being the premier supplier for industrial coating equipment.