Largest paint colour range

Press, 10 November 1981, Page 18

Largest paint colour range

The paint and wallpaper specialist. Resene Paints, Ltd, has moved into new premises at 256 Cashel Street.

The Resene Color Shop encompasses about 185 sq m and includes drive-in facilities.

Previously, the company traded from 39 Sandyford Street but, with the increase in both retail and trade sales, it quickly outgrew these premises. Resene Paints are not cutprice merchants. “We pride ourselves on being specialists,” the company’s South Island manager, Mr Peter Sullivan, said. Resene Paints, Ltd, is a wholly New Zealand owned company which was formed in 1947. The head office is in Lower Hutt and there are 15 branches throughout New Zealand.

The larger premises means the Christchurch store can now follow the other main branches and provide an extensive wallpaper range. It is the only company which can offer the customer wallpaper in the same colour as its paint range. Mr Sullivan said currently this wallpaper (called paint paper) was very popular. A subsidiary company, Mason Handprints, handcrafts the wallpaper range for the Resene Color Shops. The selection includes contemporary and classic designs in wallpapers. Border prints, ideal for around the top of skirting board; plain paper, acrylic-coated and scrubbable; “Penny Wise,” bright, two-colour designs; and foil wallpaper, metallised polyester in geometric and traditional patterns.

All the major brand names are also stocked — Ashley, Vision and The House of York.

The drive-in aspect is an “all important” advantage of the new shops, according to Mr Sullivan. .

“We didn’t want a paint shop that was almost impossible to get near and meant the customer had to carry

cans of paint a .long distance,” he said. Resene Paints claim to have the largest available colour selection in paints — more than 400 colours, including the entire range of British Standard Colours. These are all interchangeable with all types of finishes whether it be acrylic or oilbased. As well there are several colours of exterior and interior timber stains available. “We stock a full range of accessories but only relative to the painting field, not general hardware. The Resene Color Shop is a specialist store,” Mr Sullivan said. A growing market for the company was protective coatings for industrial purposes, Mr Sullivan said. These protective coatings are to provide corrosion control on major construction works. The Resene Color Shop also offers a free colour advisory service. Mr Sullivan said that with increasing labour costs, more people were carrying out major paint jobs themselves. Resene advise on the best type of paint for the surface. If necessary in the case of a house staff will also visit the home. Mr Sullivan said the average house needed to be painted every seven to eight years. “Often people try to take short-cuts with cheap paint and then they have to repaint well before this time—doubling the cost of the initial saving,” Mr Sullivan said. Origin of British Standard Colours: The development of a range of standard colours goes back to 1930 when the British Standards Institution realised there was a need for standardised colours. In 1945, it produced a leaflet entitled “Flat Colours for Wall Decoration,” which showed samples of the standard range at that time — 10 pastel colours.

The first comprehensive range of standard colours for the building industry was developed 10 years later. It was considered a tremendous range at the time as it coordinated civil aviation colours, camouflage colours, post office colours, identification colours for pipes as well as incorporating most of the colours of the previous standard range. However, the British paint manufacturers were reluctant to accept this as they

thought it was far too large and complex with 101 colours. Also, some of the colours were difficult to achieve. In 1969, Resene was the first New Zealand ’ paint manufacturer to supply all the colours in the range. Quality and range were still limited. It was not simply a question of producing a matching colour — overcoating, weather resistance and resistance to fading also had to be considered.

Aware of these limitations, the standards committee in the United Kingdom decided to have another look at the whole question. A draft framework of colours was introduced for the building industry in 1972, which became standard in 1976. Resene introduced this range in 1973 and still retained the colours in the old range, making available a total of 238 colours from the British Standard Colour Range.