How GST Brought Plating, Polishing and Coating In-House (2015–2023)
Surface treatment is where kitchen hardware either earns or loses its reputation. A basket that welds well but plates badly will still show rust spots within a year of installation. Over eight years we moved all three finishing processes in-house. Here is the timeline and what each step changed.
2015 — Electroplating
Before 2015 our chrome plating was done by an outside vendor. Lead times were unpredictable and, more importantly, finish consistency varied between batches because bath chemistry was outside our control. Bringing plating in-house let us fix the nickel underlayer thickness and hold it, batch after batch.
2021 — Electrolytic polishing
Welding heat disturbs the chromium-oxide layer that makes 304 stainless corrosion-resistant. Electrolytic polishing restores it. Running this in-house meant stainless products could go from welding to passivation without sitting in a queue at a third-party shop — which also removed a common source of handling damage.
2023 — Powder coating
Matte black and other coated finishes moved from a fashion request to a standing part of the range. Powder coating in-house lets us hold colour consistency across a mixed container, which matters when a distributor is filling a showroom.
2022 — Our own testing company
Alongside the finishing lines we set up a separate testing and certification company. Salt-spray sampling per production run, loaded cycle testing before packing, and dimensional checks are run internally rather than sent out. Dated, signed test records are available to buyers on request.
The practical result
- Shorter lead times — no waiting in a third-party queue between steps.
- Traceable failures — a batch that fails salt-spray is held, and we review bath chemistry, current density, dwell time and substrate cleanliness on our own equipment.
- One accountable party — when something goes wrong, there is no vendor to point at.
For OEM and ODM buyers this is the difference between a supplier who can explain a defect and one who can only apologise for it.
