Caprioli Painting–A N.E Success Story

Newmarket, NH–Caprioli Painting, owned and operated by Lou and Lorrianne Caprioli Since 1989, has become a highly successful family business and leading New Hampshire Commercial painting company in the last 20 years. It was cited recently by ABC NH/VT for “community service” for work done on the Brentwood (NH) Fire Station. In addition, it has been praised for donating the services of 15 painters for eight hours to paint the New Horizons Homeless Shelter on 9/28/2011 as part of the New Hampshire Color Care Across America program.
The company is currently being employed to apply an epoxy coating system to floors, as well as a Stranlok System consisting of epoxy and fibre glass to walls at the Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester.
Another high profile project completed in March was at the Elliot Hospital at Rivers Edge in Manchester.
Lorrianne Caprioli told High Profile that “we started doing commercial work in 1992-93. Our very first commercial painting project was at the Danville (N.H.) School. From
That point on we had a full time estimator in the office so Lou could go out in the field.
We now have two full time estimators “One of them,” she said, “is is his sister Robin Caprioli who moved up here and joined our company in 2005. Our son Anthony Caprioli graduated from High School in 2010 and tried college did not like it and is now working with us. Our nephew Matthew Roy graduated from high school in 2009 and has worked two summers for us, he is attending Plymouth State University currently and wants to work for us full time when he graduates. Anthony and Matt we hope to groom to take over the business if they stay interested.
“ I think we survived the economic stings because of our service, We are never the lowest bidder, or very rarely, but a general contractor knows they do not have to baby sit us they can leave us alone and we will get the work done to their satisfaction. The key to success during tough times is making sure the customer is happy and quality cannot suffer because times are tough, there are not short cuts to good quality and good service.
Also, back in 2009, we applied to become registered with the State of New Hampshire as a WBE. This helped us get a lot of commercial work, customers were looking for tax breaks during these difficult times and if you hired a disadvantaged business you got a tax break.”
She continued to point out that,” Green is a big trend. Lou had to get certified for lead removal. This was new about two years ago, before anyone could do a lead paint job and with no training. We now use zero VOC paint from our vendors. We also make sure all our field personnel are 10 hour OSHA trained which is required on any federal or state funded jobs. But it is good to have them OSHA trained anyway. Customers look to make sure your company works safely and has a good safety record.”
Her husband Lou said, “Another trend that is very popular out west and in the south is concrete finishes. It is just starting to get very popular out here. We went to the concrete show in Las Vegas back in 2008, got educated, bought our own equipment and did a big advertising campaign to do Epoxy Floor Coatings. The big market which surprised us was the commercial demand for it. We were fortunate to break into that category four years ago, now it is almost 40% of our business!
The sector we would like to expand into is the floor coatings. There is so much competition in paint that when the economy is slow it is hard to get work and keep your crews busy, plus painting can be so seasonal. Epoxy Flooring however is new and up coming and the demand seems to be getting stronger for this type of work.
The bulk of our repeat clientele is commercial; we tend to work for the same general contractors or project management teams a lot. I think we give them a level of comfort, knowing us, and working with us all the time.