Matlab
Four Decades of Quality Custom Paint and Powder Finishes

Although family-run businesses are viewed as customer-friendly, approachable, and trustworthy, when it comes to the longevity of the company, only a handful of them stand the test of time. Why? Not every family-owned business has the mastery over the six family gravity dimensions: strong values system, vision for the future, the right involvement, cohesion and interaction, good family governance, and clarity on their leadership principles and roles. Only those who lean on constantly nurturing these six crucial tenets in their work culture ultimately carve a niche of their own. An instance of one such successful family-owned business would be Matlab—the custom paint and metal finish service provider in Asheboro, NC. Founded by Jim Peddycord, Matlab is the perfect example of how incorporating the six aforementioned family gravity dimensions drove his business to the peak of its success.

Jim was managing the materials lab of IBM in the 1970s. During this time, he noticed an acute shortage of quality material assembly and polishing service providers. This realization is what led to the genesis of Matlab in 1979. The company initially worked as a material testing lab and light assembly service provider for IBM, Canon, and others of their ilk. From there, Matlab integrated liquid coating along with powder coating with its existing list of services.

Fast forward to 2018. Matlab opened its state-ofthe- art powder coating facility with a dual-coat powder finishing system and a DeLong Super 7 Descaling System. These systems enabled Matlab with the ability to offer zinc phosphate coating for corrosion resistance and to descale parts when necessary for better adhesion. Matlab has also recently integrated VTScada software—an intuitive platform for creating highly customized industrial monitoring and control applications.

Today, Matlab leverages its extensive services for catering to a wide range of industries, including medical, automotive, construction, aerospace, consumer products, and more. In addition to liquid commercial painting and powder coating, Matlab also offers services around EMI/ RFI shielding, pad printing, and light assembly. “We use manual, automated and robotic painters and are capable of meeting Class A quality standards,” highlights Gayle Peddycord Kurdian, the current owner, president, and CEO of Matlab.

Elaborating on her company’s success mantra, Gayle notes that Matlab always welcomes challenges and has been quite successful through mastering jobs that others could not solve.

Today, Matlab leverages its extensive services for catering to a wide range of industries, including medical, automotive, construction, aviation, consumer products, and more

According to Gayle, it is Matlab’s worldclass quality team, as well as the zeal for excellence through continuous improvement by employee training (Lean Six Sigma), and equipment upgrades that push the company to stay sharp. Matlab has ten unique operating plants, all regionally situated in the piedmont of North Carolina. The company can, as a result, serve the southeast to the mid-Atlantic region efficiently. The president-CEO says, “We have been able to grow and be diversified by our flexibility with several plants. It helps us tailor our services to meet clients’ needs in a timely manner.”

These extensive capabilities have now made Matlab a preferred choice for many industries, including automotive and medical device manufacturing companies. Gayle acknowledges that despite the initial slowdown of Matlab’s operations at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has witnessed a significant uptick recently. Particularly, highquality, corrosion-resistant metal components are the most common requirements in the automotive and medical industry. There is also an increased demand for refurbishing and restoring costly medical equipment, such as instruments used in robotic surgery. Additionally, for the medical industry, Matlab offers EMI/RFI Shielding for biomedical devices. This process reduces electronic malfunction susceptibility by blocking unwanted external electromagnetic waves or preventing internal electromagnetic waves from emitting and interfering with other circuits or devices.

Interestingly, when it comes to Matlab, it is not just about the company’s technical prowess. Upholding the true spirit of a family-owned business, Matlab also believes in giving back to the community by supporting local non-profits, such as Your Choices Randolph, the Randolph County Family Crisis Center, along with others. In 1995, Matlab built the Foundation for Aircraft Conservation (now known as the NC Aviation Museum) and donated it to the City of Asheboro. Recently, in 2019, Matlab was the major contributor to a new children’s home in a neighboring community.

Continuing with such humanitarian initiatives along with its core business endeavors, Matlab is now poised to encourage creativity and innovation while providing the highest level of customer satisfaction. “We want to achieve total customer satisfaction through quality, delivery, and service, and also be a beacon for Christ in the business community,” concludes Gayle.