Customer Relationships: The Cornerstone of Covia’s Success
Covia is more than just an industry-leading provider of innovative mineral solutions. We’re a trusted partner to our customers. Our success stems not only from our high-quality products and services, but from the genuine, decades-long relationships we are grateful to have with businesses across a variety of industries.
These relationships continue to grow, thanks to dedicated team members like Mark Styers, Covia’s Vice President of Specialty Materials. Read on to learn more about Mark, his journey with Covia, and the important role he and his team have played in fostering strong relationships with our incredible customers.
Team Highlight: Mark Styers
Mark started his career with Covia back in 2012, when he applied for a sales manager position to oversee Covia’s energy initiatives in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mark was recruited by another Covia team member who thought he would be a great fit for the organization. This proved to be true, and Mark has been an invaluable member of our sales team for nearly 13 years.
In his current role, Mark leads the commercial team for Covia’s specialty business unit – which consists of coatings, polymers, exports, engineered stone, and our European operation in Denmark. His day-to-day work involves supporting Covia’s great customer base and managing his talented team. “Whether it’s through negotiation strategy, opportunities presented by a customer, traveling with my team to visit a customer, or supporting the team that manages Covia’s distribution network, there’s such a wide range of things to do,” Mark said. Mark also assists in overseeing forecasting for the business unit, helping Covia’s Product Development and Innovation team prioritize and develop projects, and driving new business.
Outside of work, Mark enjoys spending time with his family. “I really put a high priority on the people in my life,” Mark said. “The best part about Covia is the people. The best part about my family is obviously the people. I’m blessed to have such a wonderful family, but also a wonderful professional family. That’s a very rare thing.” At home, Mark spends quality time with his kids – attending their sporting events and even coaching their teams.
Building Genuine Connections
Building genuine connections goes beyond the sales process. To further support our customers, many of Covia’s team members attend their charity events and actively participate in their philanthropic initiatives – just like our customers do for our business through the Covia Foundation. “Our team loves to participate in our customer’s charity events,” Mark mentioned. “It really fortifies the genuine relationships that we have. Our customers are so important to us – not only from a business perspective. We truly care about what they care about. We want them to be successful.”
At the same time, several of Covia’s customers and distributors go above and beyond to support our charitable efforts. We are truly grateful for their ongoing support of the Covia Foundation’s initiatives in events such as the Bill Conway Founders Charity Golf Classic benefiting the United Way and the annual Stars, Stripes, and Links event in support of wounded veterans. Through our philanthropic work, we strive to be a positive force in our communities, and their support helps make that a reality. “Their support highlights how impactful mutual relationships are in taking our organizations to another level,” added Mark. “We spend good time doing good work together. That’s what makes a difference for Covia and our customers.”
The relationships that Covia has built with our customers over the years are due in no small part to our sales team and our plant team members. “I can’t compliment our commercial team enough for the relationships they have with our customer base,” Mark said. “We have some really deep relationships with customers, some spanning several decades, and in some cases our commercial team members have meaningful friendships with our customers. You can't get a closer relationship than a friendship.”
The work our plants do is also critical to the success of the sales team. “We can’t succeed without the great performance of our plants,” Mark said. “They are truly world-class.” Not only are they essential in the development and production of our mineral products, many plant workers go above and beyond when called upon. “One thing we like to do for the American Coatings Show is to have plant team members join the sales team at the booth,” Mark said. “They come out and work alongside the sales team side-by-side. When our customers come up to the booth, they not only talk with the sales team but also can speak with the plant team they’re buying their product from. Our plant team members are such great people and are critical to Covia’s success and our customers’ success.”
Meaningful Relationships and Product Innovation
LUMINEXTM is a silica-based, ultrawhite filler that helps reduce the costs of finished products while achieving consistent, higher whiteness. LUMINEXTM is most commonly found in quartz countertops for kitchens. For Mark, the launch of LUMINEXTM was a significant moment in his career.
LUMINEXTM was being commissioned when Mark was promoted to his current role and now LUMINEXTM has been developed into the final product it is today. “It’s been interesting to see how it’s grown over the last couple years – evolving from an idea to a full-fledged service offering,” Mark said.
“Developing new products that make our customers successful is key to Covia being successful. And that’s really exciting,” Mark continued. “We’ve gotten great customer engagement from this project. We’ve also been able to hire a lot of talented people to make this project a reality – giving them a fulfilling career.”
Mark said, “Our customers get excited when we talk about new products that we are working on. They get genuinely excited and curious about how our products can help them, and we love learning about what they need. I’m very excited to see what comes next.”
