Extensive experience is something you find with all of Protec®’s field support staff and Stefan Van der Stelt is no exception. In fact, his experience began with growing up around his father’s bodyshop in Germany, before he joined the business as a paint technician in the mid-1980s. Along with developing his trade skills, Stefan also did a two year stint in the German Army and spent some time in the power generation industry.
Since Protec® launched its new Commercial Transport (CT) paint system early in 2014, Paragaze CT has gathered truckloads of interest. According to Steve Palanechka, Protec Refinish National Sales Manager, big market players have quickly recognised it as an easy to understand, high productivity solution.
If you are looking for a measure of just how quickly the Startline® brand has impacted on the local market, consider this – customers have already bought more than one million Startline abrasive discs! Amazingly, this figure doesn’t even include other abrasives, such as sheets, rolls or scourer pads, or any of the other products from the range. Given that the Startline brand was started from scratch early in 2014, it has only taken around six short months to break through this extraordinary milestone. According to Product Specialist, Kurt Way, the brand has quickly established itself and is performing up to the ambitious plans put in place.
Over the past few years, the need to access effective tools to cope with changing industry conditions has seen a growing focus on refinish products which can make a real contribution to increased process speed and efficiency. This saw Protec’s local Research and Development Team swing into action to develop a new clearcoat, PC-4780 Paraglaze Fast Flow Clearcoat, which meets this ‘need for speed’. What’s more, this versatile 3:1 clearcoat combines the speed expected from a fast clearcoat with the excellent clarity and gloss appearance of Protec’s existing PC-3900 Paraglaze Extra Flow Clearcoat, says Steve Palanechka, Protec Refinish National Sales Manager.
The epic thrills and spills of one of the most bizarre Bathurst 1000s ever has really captured the imagination of the viewing public and the number 222 Walkinshaw Racing Commodore, complete with distinctive purple Startline branding, was right in the thick of it. An onsite crowd in excess of 195,000, along with 3.75 million Australian TV viewers watched as young gun, Nick Percat and his British co-driver, Oliver Gavin, claimed a dramatic last lap podium finish behind the winning Ford of Chaz Mostert / Paul Morris and the Nissan of James Moffat / Taz Douglas.
An all new consumables brand is introducing Protec-style value. Where Protec’s no-compromise combination of performance and cost effectiveness has established it as ‘the clear choice’ in refinish paint systems, the recently launched Startline brand is carving a similar reputation in the consumables sector.
In just a short time on the market, Paraglaze Ultraseal AP-6000 has established a strong following thanks to its ability to save valuable labour time. Designed for use in Wet-On-Wet mode, this transparent sealer and adhesion promoter is a versatile tool for tackling a range of applications but is particularly ideal when used over sound OEM electrocoat on new panels.
To match its fresh new product range, Protec has launched a fresh, new-look website. As well as providing a clean, clear web link for customers, the new layout is also designed to reflect Protec’s ‘Clear Choice’ branding. Visitors will immediately notice a more visual and colourful site, with an emphasis on being easy to use and simple to navigate through the various layers of information. Recognising the growing move to portable technology, the Protec website has also been tuned to mobile and touch-screen devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Accessing the website from one of these devices is automatically detected and the viewing resolution is adjusted to suit.
After a massive overhaul of its refinish product portfolio over the past two years, there’s still no stopping the Protec brand as it continues to go from strength to strength. Now it’s the turn of the Commercial Transport (CT) sector to reap the benefits thanks to the launch of Paragaze CT. It combines the new Paraglaze Tinter System (which has received outstanding customer feedback since its launch in mid 2013) with a selection of specialised primers and a clearcoat which have been specifically tuned to the requirements of local CT refinishers.
Whatever the heavy vehicle (from trucks, buses and coaches to larger trailers and tankers), the new Paraglaze CT formulations offer high productivity solutions that help you get the job done quickly and efficiently. Once again, this is a Protec product which is Australian developed and manufactured specifically to suit local conditions and that’s a clear advantage for users, according to Steve Palanechka, Protec Refinish National Sales Manager.
An all new brand of refinish consumables is quickly making a name for itself in the market and it happens to be a perfect fit with Protec’s own philosophy of offering dependable, high quality products at a value for money price. Indeed, the launch of Startline now gives bodyshop businesses the opportunity to help reduce their costs without the need to compromise on quality and performance. To do that, the local Startline Team searched the globe to find high performance products and then tested them under local conditions to ensure each and every one delivers reliable quality, excellent productivity and long service life, yet at a cost effective price.
