as overcapacity in developed markets.
This means shops have to select those
paint suppliers that will be great partners in helping them survive and thrive
in their marketplace.
Continued consolidation and rising
strength of MSOs and mega-dealers
in the U.S. is another trend as is the
continued demand on the part of
body shops, globally, for paint and
supporting systems that deliver
greater productivity.
VOC legislation in many nations is
driving a push to waterborne systems
and continued pressure from OEMs,
insurance companies and consumers
is squeezing available margin space.
Lastly, growing economy segments in
developing markets are requiring business models beyond the traditional mixing machine/body shop model prevalent
in premium segments. A potential barrier to growing business in these markets is the shortage of qualified, trained
technicians.
uniquely tailored to serving the needs of
specific segments. We believe we’ve got
the best non-paint value proposition to
the body shop to go with our world-class
paint systems.
borne on the market, providing better
hiding and color match than any competitive offering, allowing for significantly better throughput times and greatly
reduced energy consumption.
What is the latest technology being utilized
in the market?
Are there any other developments on DuPont’s
refinish front worth noting?
What are the key issues with your customers
and how is your company addressing those
needs?
Robertson: Clearly everyone needs a
paint system that is robust, reliable,
productive and provides great color
match. With shops under greater pressure for improved cost and throughput,
there is an ever-increasing desire for
paint that hides better and dries faster.
In response we work hard to maintain
our leadership in paint technology and
feel like those companies whose next
generation of waterborne paint “sprays
like solvent” instead of taking a technological leap forward will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Continuing to be seen as the premiere
business partner for the body shop
owner requires much more in addition to
the best paint, so we focus a great deal of
our effort on the non-paint pieces of our
value proposition. The key is driving
more business to our body shops, and
then driving those cars through the body
shop faster and more efficiently. This
means heavy investment in our
Performance Alliance network, insurance relationships, lean consulting, proprietary color systems and offerings
Robertson: DuPont is a technology leader
with over 35,000 patents—an average of
about one every other day since our
founding in 1802. So, we could constantly advance the state-of-the-art in
advanced coatings technologies. But I
don't think the wider auto refinish market is asking for nanotechnology or
smart coatings, for example. They are
asking for technology tha most cost-effectively allows the shop to bring in business and make repairs with a perfect
color match. So our latest technology
innovations are tools to help connect the
shop to insurance companies and tools
that allow faster and better color match
such as DuPont's Performance Services
and best-in-class spectrophotometers
and electronic color delivery systems.
Our newest and most important product is our water based Cromax-Pro line.
It’s clearly the most productive water-
Robertson: We are constantly on the
lookout for ways to grow what is the
largest and most successful refinish
business in the world. To that end, we
continue to assess tactical acquisitions
that expand our footprint either geographically or into an adjacent segment. One highlight for us is the opening of our new Coatings Technology
Center. We closed an outdated facility
and have stood up our U.S. technology
organization in a new state-of-the-art,
multi-million dollar facility at DuPont’s
Experimental Station, our worldwide
technology headquarters. This is a
major commitment to ensure our continued product and technology leadership in the industry and allows our scientists to leverage the knowledge of our
wider technology organization that has
continuously produced market-altering
innovations. CW
DUPONT PERFORMANCE COATINGS PARTNERS WITH THE BODY SHOP
DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) has partnered with The Body Shop,
which specializes in “lean” collision repair. The agreement between the parties
covers the sharing of The Body Shop’s Star-Link Collision Repair System, a
Kaizen centered “lean” business model that was developed by John Sweigart
and Brad Sullivan over the past 12 years. The model is currently practiced in
all of The Body Shop’s Pittsburgh and
New Jersey locations, as well as in
several other independent repair
shops in the United States and
Canada. DPC is partnering with The
Body Shop to offer a refined version of
the model to DPC body shops. The
Body Shop operates a customer-focused group of collision repair centers with plans to continue rapid
expansion over the coming years. Sweigart and Sullivan created the Star-Link
Collision Repair Network, made up exclusively of repairers who are committed
to genuine improvement through Kaizen. This group exists to promote to the
customer a substantially better offering, and to work together through shared
learning for the sake of a better collision repair industry, according to the company. DPC will offer courses at NACE, SEMA and other events featuring the
learning from exposure to The Body Shop.
