In Arizona, scorching temperatures make for high energy bills in the summertime. A new partnership between a painting franchise and an eco-friendly paint company is trying to fix that.
Shanmugam Mukundan, a Phoenix LIME painting franchisee, recently partnered with Canada-based Enviro Thermal Coatings to provide a new, eco-friendly paint option for LIME’s customers.
“I’m a big proponent of being eco-friendly,” Mukundan said. “And more and more people are getting more eco-conscious, especially in the demographic that we address, which is the top three to five percent of income earners in the state.”
LIME, which stands for Love, Integrity, Mission and Excellence, used the Enviro Thermal Coatings paint for a barn in the Phoenix area recently, and is also using the paint on a mobile home.
There are two options for Phoenix customers—cork and nano coatings.
The cork coating is made with materials from a cork tree, which makes up 50 to 60 percent of the product. With cork trees, when bark is pulled off, it takes eight years to grow back, and while it does so it’s taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, thus making the product environmentally friendly.
For every 5,000 square feet the cork-based paint covers, it’s equivalent to 300 trees removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Enviro Thermal Coatings CEO Zach Digout said. Cork is breathable and is good at insulating an area to keep it cooler or warmer. (Think of it like insulation, but it’s paint.)
“It’s not allowing your heat to pass through,” COO Andrew Scholar said. “It’s one of the best insulated type materials that’s available. It just so happens to be a natural product.”
The nano coating works similarly, but it’s better for keeping an area cooler, so the company would recommend it for warmer climates, like in Arizona. The cork coating is recommended for northern climates, like in Minnesota or Canada.
These paints can save over a third in energy costs annually, according to Enviro Thermal Coatings’ website.
“In the long run, it saves money because it reduces the repaint cycle. At the same time, it also helps save some energy bill, which in the long term, saves some more money,” Mukundan said.
The total investment needed to open a LIME franchise ranges from $124,700 to $162,375. LIME has 76 units across 19 states.
LIME CEO Nick Lopez founded the company out of college during the early 2000s recession. He started his own painting business in college to pay his bills, and he had the idea for the luxury painting business at the time. “Back in college, I looked at the bigger the house, the bigger the college bills it would help me pay,” Lopez said.
When he’s looking for franchisees, he wants someone who is a team builder and sales focused. LIME has what Lopez says is a “tried and true” business model that will work all over the country.
Lopez plans to add more sustainable options for clients nationwide in the future.
He compared LIME in the painting space to the Uber Black of Ubers. “Uber Black, it gives clients an option in the market to have a nicer vehicle and it does all the legwork to do that,” Lopez said. “But in the paint space, we vet high-grade s