Painting business plan template

Executive Summary

Business Overivew

Dercard Painting will be a specialist painting, restoration and thermal insulation activities company located in the town of Fleury-sur-Orne.

We plan to offer painting services for walls, floors, and ceilings. Our clients will benefit from front restoration and exterior painting, as well as repairs following water damage or graffiti. 

We mainly target individual owners (e.g. pub owners or landlords), allowing them to focus on other aspects of their lives and businesses with complete peace of mind.

Our eco-friendly labelled accreditation means that our clients receive financial aid from the government when carrying out external thermal insulation work. 

We have set up a limited company with a total share capital of €5,000. The business will be managed by Victor D. and Martin C. 

Our premises will be located in Caen, France. Being close to the main roads will enable us to easily access multiple construction sites.

Our partners have a great deal of experience in both the painting and construction sectors. They met on a building site and have kept in touch ever since.

National market

The coating, painting and glazing sector

Definition and data of the sector

Construction companies generally engage in a variety of activities, even if they differ slightly in nature from their main services.

Companies in this sector are multi-skilled, allowing them to maximise market share by offering several services to customers.

The three key services are:

• Painting: this includes protection work and adding finishing touches to construction elements (interior and exterior buildings)
• Glazing: installing tiles, windows and material necessary to fix and seal
• Cladding: applying final layers to improve how buildings look - they can be protective (anti-graffiti, anti-mould, etc.) or decorative

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According to the 2017 CAPEB report, there were 72,641 companies with fewer than 20 employees specialising in one of these sub-sectors.

Plus, there were 39,917 non-salaried workers.

The painter-glazier trade

According to the French Building Federation, the French painting and glazing sector was worth €12 billion in 2018 - in other words, 10% of the turnover of the building sector.

The industry consisted of:

• Maintenance and renovation: 82%
• New build: 18%

There were 72,641 companies in the sector, which suggests that the average turnover for each business was approximately €165,140. 

Typology of households doing work or building new

Households and renovation

According to The Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, there are 5 main categories of households that require renovation, as of 2019:

• Routine maintenance (24% of households living in single-family homes) consists of repairs and improvements. The average age of those living in such homes is 65 and they only look to maintain their property, rather than improve it.
• Small-step improvement (42% of households) is where homeowners plan to improve their properties gradually, in particular, to reduce energy consumption (install efficient features).
• Improvement with help (16% of households), allows households to replace defective installations with something more efficient, in particular, to reduce their bills, and with the help of energy aid offered by the government.
• Energy improvement (11% of households) for those who already live in modern properties and do not view it as an immediate need.
• Complete renovation (6% of households), for those who need to fully modernise their property. This project requires significant financial investment.

Among these profiles, financial means and socio-demographic profiles are diverse. Our market research is based on energy renovations carried out by households.

Routine maintenance and small-scale improvement are in the majority and may lead households to use construction companies for repairs or small-scale work, e.g. in residential housing.

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Households and construction

According to the newspaper Le Figaro, the construction sector has evolved significantly over the last twenty years. This is due to households wanting more space, despite the price per square metre increasing during that period.

Houses in 1996 had an average surface area of 76m². Each square meter of land was worth approximately €47 at the time.

In comparison, houses in 2016 had an average surface area of 96m², with each square metre of land being worth €118.

Couples made up 76% of the clientele and buyers were generally between 36 and 37 years old.

Notably, 60% of the new builds were in subdivisions - this meant that those businesses were guaranteed contracts for several houses in the lot. 

Local market

Figures in Normandy

According to The Regional Economic Unit for Construction, Normandy's construction sector was worth €10 billion in 2018 - a 4% growth in comparison to 2017 figures. The sector accounted for 6% of Normandy's total economy at the time.

There were 28,644 construction businesses in the region:

• 30% were companies employing between 1 and 9 employees 
• 64% were self-employed establishments
• 6% were companies employing more than 10 employees

The CAPEB report also indicates that companies employing fewer than 10 employees generated turnover worth €4.3 million in 2017, i.e. 43% of the regional turnover.

Calvados figures

The county of Calvados generated a turnover of €2.2 billion in 2017 and accounted for 21.2% of France's turnover in the building and public works sector. 7,164 such businesses were operating in the region.

With the majority of businesses employing fewer than 10 employees (28%) and micro-businesses without employees (67%), the Calvados sector was predominantly occupied by small companies.

In 2017, housing construction was the most prominent sector in Calvados  - with 81% of all employees working in the industry and 85% of all businesses being construction companies.

Public works employed 17% of all employees, but only comprised of 6% of businesses in Calvados.

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Housing stock in Calvados

According to Calvados Departmental Directorate for Land and Sea's 2019 report, there were 407,191 houses in Calvados in 2015, i.e. 23% of the total number of houses in the Normandy region.

The majority of properties in Calvados were built between 1990 and 1999. Houses built between 1974 and 1989 came second on the list.

We can identify whether or not a property requires renovation by looking at when it was built.

The construction of new individual houses remained stable in 2018, while the construction of new collective houses increased by 11%, compared to 2017.

Target market

We have decided to target the following customer profiles:

Individual owners, landlords and property investors wishing to renovate one or more properties

We aim to target homeowners and property investors who want to renovate their flats or houses. This is usually done to implement better insulation, which reduces energy consumption long term.

Individual builders or construction companies for new houses

We would also like to target individual builders who carry out operational work for new houses and therefore contract with the tradesmen on behalf of the client.

We have identified 5 main competitors in the vicinity of Fleury-sur-Orne. 

We believe we can compete in the market, particularly as we offer quality services that meet industry standards and offer a thermal insulation service that most do not. 

The local authorities are also encouraging renovation projects, so we believe that the market is large enough to accommodate a new entrant in the Caen area. 

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The indirect competitors we have identified are:

• Do-it-yourself (DIY) workers
• Illegal workers

We believe that such competition will be limited. This is because it's easy to do DIY when it comes to light painting work but significantly harder when it comes to cladding and insulation as both require professional knowledge.

Similarly, DIY or illegal work is risky for the client because no warranty is given. In comparison, construction companies generally provide between 2 and 10 years worth of warranty, depending on the nature of the work.

Key figures

We expect the business to be profitable from its first year of operation - generating a turnover worth €147,500 and an EBITDA of €11,097 (with a 7.52% margin).

We expect to expand our customer base in year 2 and achieve a turnover of €153,500 (or 4.07% of growth) and an EBITDA of €13,627 (with a 8.88% margin).

In year 3, we expect to achieve sales worth €159,500 (or 3.91% of growth) and an EBITDA of €16,107 (with a 10.10% margin).

Operating cash flow generation is expected to be positive for the entire duration of the plan, and the company should be adequately capitalised to enable us to meet our loan repayments while retaining sufficient liquidity to deal with any contingencies.

Need

The initial financing requirements of the project are estimated to be €21,000. Our partners have planned to contribute €13,000, that is to say, 65% of the amount.

We would like to obtain a loan of €8,000 to complete the financing.

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