GPs The company then set about consolidating seemed to be the area where we heard most the good reputation the retail store had complaints from customers, which we already earned itself while selling paint naturally interpreted as a good opportunity products, by adding new car accessory lines for us to step in and get involved. We progressed from welcoming feel, it proved to be a real being the smallest tyre outlet to the biggest game changer.
That started to recognise that their business was acquisition in really shook up the truly valued and shopping for car products market because as well as getting their became a pleasure. I think that people in Barbados really appreciate what we are doing because cars are so expensive to buy here that owners need to really look after them properly to protect their investment.
At its own considerable expense, Automotive Art invested in the future growth of its clients and potential clients by inviting them to attend workshop presentations and training sessions to enhance their knowledge base and expertise.
Since many of these bodyworkers and painters had never really had any previous formal education and training, this represented a totally unprecedented level of support. They instantly appreciated the golden opportunity that had been placed before them and readily understood that this forward-thinking step could help them to become more professional and grow their own business enormously.
Inevitably, the response to the free training on offer was overwhelming, and Automotive Art eventually held hundreds of these sessions in the first few years, essentially every time it launched a new product. At the same time that Automotive Art was busy developing mutually beneficial relationships with many small to medium-sized workshop clients, the company also forged long-lasting alliances with bigger clients such as Simpson Motors and McEnearney Quality Incorporated.
The bodywork shop at Simpson Motors,. I joined Automotive Art on June 1, , in what has turned out to be one of the pivotal decisions of my life, and what I still vividly remember to this day is how powerful I felt that we could make the company a real success in the future, and how hard we all focused to make this dream a reality …and still do to this day. We worked very hard in those early years, six days a week every week, and most days late into the night due to unstuffing containers, recovering from occasional computer system crashes and searching for new product and category opportunities.
While our hard work paid early dividends in terms of growth, I think one of the first cultural tenets that matured into part of our DNA in those initial years was that we always saw that our destiny lay outside of Barbados. This is not to say Barbados was not an important part of our early success, but as far back as I remember there was always this focus of going beyond Barbados — a dream of becoming first a regional and then a global player.
I have so many fond memories of working to grow our company across the Caribbean in our early years. Little did I understand that those early adventures would create a broader corporate mindset for trade and growth outside of Barbados, as well as develop and refine our business outlook for much bigger global undertakings down the road.
While the first 25 years were spent developing our business model, and refining our corporate culture and values, the next 25 will be all about execution and leveraging all that we have built on a global scale. Our focus is rapidly shifting to managing geographically diverse sales teams, developing distribution and logistics infrastructure to support our expanding geography, accessing new forms of capital to fund our growth, as well as investing in quality control, technology, and plant and equipment.
It will be about pulling these variables together into an equation that will deliver innovation to our business, create sustainable competitive advantage for our company, and differentiation for our brand. While many of these initiatives will be new to the organisation, one thing that will remain the same is. It is fair to say that Automotive Art has been instrumental in the development of every major bodywork shop in Barbados and many more throughout the wider Caribbean. Consequently, while other companies were hesitant to invest in new technology and more expensive paint and accessories, Automotive Art forged ahead, and that bold approach paid huge dividends for it as its new lines of business exploded.
Over the years, the key aspects behind the ongoing success of Automotive Art are that the company has resisted falling into the trap of resting on its own laurels, instead it has embraced innovation, and enjoyed accepting new challenges. Relative to our size, we have always invested heavily in our people in order to deliver exceptional service experiences to our customers, as well as enhance the skill sets required to take the company to the next level.
This focus will be further enhanced going forward, as we have invested in new trainers, a new training centre for our United States operations in West Palm Beach, and a new Learning Management Platform that will enable us to warehouse our collective knowledge and training resources, and deliver them wherever and whenever we need them across the globe.
In short, our success in the immediate future will depend heavily on achieving alignment between our human, financial and operational capital, and successfully leveraging this on our customers and prospects. That said, our team looks eagerly to the future, and savours the challenges of growing the company for the next 25 years, this time with the world as our canvas.
Quite soon after the launch of the company, Automotive Art relocated to bigger premises in Wildey, St Michael, and took over the manufacturing of all the automotive paints from Harris Paints, which enabled them to significantly expand the Harris and Glasurit portfolios in Barbados and around the Caribbean.
In later years, by using technology and production facilities made available by Harris Paints, the company was also able to start developing its own Automotive Art branded products.
After just five years in business, Hugh and Dereck had already achieved their first ambition of revolutionising the automotive paint business in Barbados and the wider Caribbean. Thanks to a vastly improved manufacturing process, superior products, a modern retail outlet, and a strong emphasis on providing efficient and polite service, Automotive Art had forever transformed the paint buying experience from old-fashioned behind-the-counter shops to a highly professional, customer-friendly environment.
It was an entirely logical step to establish the first new markets in Dominica and St Lucia, where Harris Paints already had a physical presence in the form of manufacturing plants, but bigger markets were also beckoning.
Trinidad and Tobago, despite the fact that it was a very competitive environment with many local brands and manufacturers, was the next island to be targeted, followed by Jamaica, which rapidly grew into a huge market for Automotive Art.
Due to distribution restrictions included in the agreement with Glasurit, Automotive Art was only allowed to sell its products in the English-speaking Caribbean, so. In a benign twist of fate, it was that contractual roadblock that served as the catalyst to propel Automotive Art into launching its own private label paint, produced at that time at its own factory in Barbados.
Having successfully taken that major step, Automotive Art was then free to expand throughout the entire Caribbean. Back To Top. Apply Now. Stay Updated! Stay Connected. This venture has catapulted the company into a truly global organization, with corporate offices in two continents that actively trade in 65 countries worldwide. Automotive Art bold initiatives for the future are a reflection of its successful undertakings in the past, and we look forward to continuing to fulfilling our mission of being a leading retailer of automotive aftermarket products through quality commitment to our customers.
Kitts St. Lucia Suriname. Company News Car Care Guide. History Founded in August , Automotive Art was the brainchild of partners Dereck Foster and Hugh Blades, who recognized change was afoot in the refinish market in Barbados and the wider Caribbean.
Back To Top. Apply Now. Furthermore, we successfully acquired a significant shareholding in Multichem, which effectively meant that we were now manufacturing our own products and no longer needed to depend on any third-party suppliers. That critical factor not only freed up Automotive Art in North America, it also empowered us to really start targeting global markets. And that is exactly what we have done ever since.
We are currently trading in 65 countries and we are expanding into more new markets each year. We have huge potential ahead of us at Automotive Art and I am convinced that we are going to continue growing into that potential; and it will all be built around a high quality, world-class brand. From a strategic perspective, we want to see our paint brands everywhere, literally in as many countries around the planet as possible.
That is my objective and I want to achieve it in my lifetime. Barbados has been good for Automotive Art and having our headquarters here still offers a number of advantages, such as good access to well-educated people, a convenient geographic location, a great climate and a wonderful lifestyle. My senior colleagues and I could live anywhere in the world, but we choose to live here in Barbados; not because of any tax advantages or anything like that, but simply because we can run a global business efficiently from this location and still enjoy a very happy and healthy life.
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