Line-x Never Sleeps In Battle Against Rust

Company expands product use beyond truck bedliners

SANTA ANA, CALIF (Thursday, October 28, 2004) - Earlier this year, a big, bright Line-X sign went up on a hill overlooking Highway 2, just north of the Red Deer River.

Before long, a local news reporter stopped by to ask the kind of probing question journalists are famous for: “Who are you guys?”

Even in its own backyard, Line-X Canada has been a well-kept secret. But here’s the short answer.

One of the country’s fastest-growing franchise chains, Line-X Canada markets a spray-on polyurethane coating that was first developed for truck bedliners, but has developed into a rust-resistant cure-all with dozens of uses.


Jeff Stokoe, for Business Edge
Line-X partners Phil Crichton, Cam Tomalty, Bob Northey and Lawrence Tomalty, left to right, are ready to battle corrosion in their Red Deer shop.
At the moment, 32 Line-X shops in Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Quebec charge an average $475 to apply a thin, permanent “elastomeric polymer” (75- per-cent polyurethane, 25-per-cent polyurea) to their customers’ truck beds. These attractive, durable, instant-dry liners are only a fraction of an inch thick but they fight corrosion the way The Terminator fights cyborgs. In other words, it’s no contest.

“We’re the answer to the corrosion problem, which is a billion-dollar liability in the Canadian market,” says a one-time livestock trader named Lawrence Tomalty, who introduced Line-X to Canada 11 years ago.

Meanwhile, customers from both the energy and the agricultural sectors are also picking up on Line-X. They use it to seal oilfield tools, safety trailers and fertilizer hoppers. Emergency-response teams use it to coat firefighting equipment. RV dealerships use it to protect moulded fibreglass trailer fronts.

Even the Pentagon is spraying interior walls with a flexible, blast-proof paint developed in Line-X labs. Tests indicate that the paint, said to be stronger than steel, can actually help key military installations withstand explosions. According to a press release, “bombed walls flex but stay together.”

It’s all pretty heady stuff for Tomalty, a self-described farm boy who “spent 29 years milking cows.”

After he sold his dairy herd in the early 1990s, Tomalty, 57, says he was “looking for something to do with my son, Cam.”

He answered a newspaper ad and ultimately formed a partnership with Cam and Bob Northey, his former hired hand. A fourth employee, Phil Crichton, completes the inner circle.

The partners started out running their own shop and rapidly became the busiest Line-X franchise in North America.

Eventually they landed Canadian franchise and distribution rights from the U.S. head office in Santa Ana, Calif. Three years ago, they sold their own spray-on franchise to concentrate on expanding the network.

“We had to start from scratch, selling a completely new product,” says Tomalty, who made his first sale to a dealer who insisted that he spray his liner in a used truck rather than risk ruining a new one.

But the corporate vision grew as the partners gained faith in the quality of their product. As unofficial national capitals of pickup-truck culture, Calgary and Edmonton (two franchises each) were obvious targets for expansion. In all, a dozen Line-X shops operate in Alberta, from Viking to Grande Prairie.

Meanwhile, B.C. franchises in Abbotsford and Courtenay are thriving. Tomalty has already accepted deposits from four new operators, who’ll open their doors within two months.

But Tomalty is particularly enthused about the company’s long-term prospects in Ontario and Quebec, otherwise known as the Line-X El Dorado. He calls the two salt-happy provinces the “corrosion capitals of the world,” and through the last three years has helped a dozen Line-X franchises get off to roaring starts in Ontario alone.

“Everything rusts down there,” he grins. “All we have to do is educate the customers.”

From an operator’s standpoint, an investment in Line-X sounds pretty attractive. The upfront franchise fee is a relatively modest $15,000, which includes sales and technical training, and enough product to make a running start. But Tomalty recommends a float of $50,000 to $75,000 to carry rookies beyond the startup stage.

“We have a markup on the product we sell them,” nods Tomalty. “But the nice thing about our agreement is, the more successful your store is, the more money goes in your pocket.

“Nobody is siphoning off your profit margin, either at the corporate level or at the distribution level.”

So far, the performance record is golden.

“We’ve never set up anybody who has failed,” Tomalty says.

Meanwhile, distributors and franchisees are sharing the costs of a national ad campaign to help them answer the reporter’s burning question: “Who are you guys?”

Tomalty puts it this way: “Everybody knows about Kleenex. We want everybody to know about Line-X.”

View all Line-X Corp. Press Releases

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