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Why are we stuck with just a couple brands in NZ?


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In case I am not getting my points across well (which can be the case with me) I am going to simply post a link to an article. It's not the one I was wanting, but it is pretty close to what I am trying to express. The discussion is a complex one and I can't provide all the relevant info in a few posts. So if anyone is interested in the topic, please read.
https://yachtsnet.co.uk/osmosis.htm
Aside from that, I will continue to search and see if I can find some kind of online article, if one exists, in reference to the article I read from the International/Epiglass fellow. By the way, I could be wrong, but the name David keeps popping into my head. No clue of last name. Thinking hard I have a feeling the article may have been in one of the Boating Magazines.

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On 10/04/2022 at 6:21 AM, Zozza said:

**Why can't I get Epifanes "Rapid Clear' in NZ?  Why can't I get most Epifanes paints and varnishes in NZ? **Why are we stuck with just International Paints and Altex Paints and a couple other small brands.

I bet some of you "in the game" will come back with "Ah, but you can...you have to talk to this person, then to this person, who then needs to talk to this other person whom will tell that person that there is a three month lead in time to get the stuff into NZ"

Nah, stuff that - I just want to be able to walk into a marine chandler or use a a good online chandlery website here in NZ, and buy these brands off the shelf rather than going through hoops.
 

Hey mate, new member here. I somehow found this post will scrolling google and thought it'd be worth making an account and getting involved as I can speak to this topic very personally. 

I am the product manager at 37 South in Auckland and we are the New Zealand agents for Epifanes and have been for well over a decade, you can find us on the Epifanes website, under 'global distribution', although they are still using our old address. I'm new to this roll here and we will be pushing Epifanes as much as possible, hopefully into retailers around the country (we now have a foot in the door with a few "big" chandlery names) as we are aiming to get more into distribution. Typically our Epifanes sales go to boat builders and yachts only, who know of us and have accounts with us. The main reason that you see the same names in chandleries and more niche product ranges not on the shelves has been mentioned already, it mostly comes down to much larger distributors and market makers selling the common, DIY products at massive volumes to major retailers, the type of volumes that smaller companies like us cannot usually compete with, think Akzo Nobel for an example with International and AWL products. If your average customer doesn't recognize the brand they likely won't branch out and buy it, as simple as that. Hence, why major retailers are usually hesitant to stock lesser known brands regularly. 

Having said that, we are changing things here soon with a new company that will only be distributing our products that we are the NZ agents, separating our Yacht agent and product distribution businesses. We haven't launched it yet but the new company is called "Mayne + Foss" (pronounced Mayne and Foss), a little sneak peak there for you, the website will be live in a few weeks. 

Google targeted ads will be much more common for us so you will hopefully find us and our products much easier online and I'll be pushing harder to get product ranges like Epifanes in retailer stores as our business relationships evolve further.

FYI - We don't stock Epifanes paint, only varnish but we do have Rapid clear and all the other varnishes you'll be aware of in stock by the plenty, so feel free to get in touch with me any time if you needed some. 

Cheers. 

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Hempel, despite being here for 15 plus years and being a big player in Europe (with excellent paint) they are still a minor player in the retail market, same with Jotun. Boaties are very conservative, which makes sense when the biggest cost component for a paintjob is haulout and labour. International for example is a good product, is it the best?-maybe but its very reliable and has huge backing so even though the prices are high, its worth it for most people. The paint companies know this and price their products accordingly, you can often buy the industrial/commercial line from some companies which are identical to the pleasure market products but half the price. 

Small boat paint products are relatively straightforward, its when you get into the commercial and industrial side that you really need heavyweight R&D and technical backup. Professional painters and boatbuilders are more likely to understand the brands, but even then they stick to what they know that works unless convinced otherwise by a good rep.

Anyway there's is only one paint to use on a boat, the mighty Durepox!

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55 minutes ago, Psyche said:

Hempel, despite being here for 15 plus years and being a big player in Europe (with excellent paint) they are still a minor player in the retail market, same with Jotun. Boaties are very conservative, which makes sense when the biggest cost component for a paintjob is haulout and labour. International for example is a good product, is it the best?-maybe but its very reliable and has huge backing so even though the prices are high, its worth it for most people. The paint companies know this and price their products accordingly, you can often buy the industrial/commercial line from some companies which are identical to the pleasure market products but half the price. 

Small boat paint products are relatively straightforward, its when you get into the commercial and industrial side that you really need heavyweight R&D and technical backup. Professional painters and boatbuilders are more likely to understand the brands, but even then they stick to what they know that works unless convinced otherwise by a good rep.

Anyway there's is only one paint to use on a boat, the mighty Durepox!

Good post Psyche.  I googled 'Durepox' (which sounds like an unfortunate skin condition) and it sounds like good stuff.
The fact it acts as both a sealer, primer, and top coat has got to be a game changer, yet I see it was used on Blakes ETNZ which was many years ago.
Some of these companies are pretty useless at promoting their product - and Resene should have been promoting this product extensively years and years ago and getting it into the Burnsco's of this world.

As far as 'International Paints' go, it may good stuff but it is ridiculously expensive...and they are also using the Countdown / New World business of monopolising the NZ market and charging exorbitant prices.

On NZ yachties being traditionally conservative - well I must be part of the new breed then as I don't really give a sh*t about all the old conservative NZ yachtie thinking (I chose a junk rig after all) and I will try any product or equipment that has good refs and reviews and is reasonably priced.

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2 hours ago, Psyche said:

Hempel, despite being here for 15 plus years and being a big player in Europe (with excellent paint) they are still a minor player in the retail market, same with Jotun. Boaties are very conservative, which makes sense when the biggest cost component for a paintjob is haulout and labour. International for example is a good product, is it the best?

The problem Hempel had in NZ originally was that the Owner was mostly interested in Commercial Shipping. He was originally one of the big cheeses of Nalder and Biddle of Nelson. The NZ operation did do retail, but not a lot more than someone walking in off the street into the front of their Wharehouse. Possibly the biggest advertising they got was me talking about the product.
Now that Hempels own the wharehouse, I can only assume the product range will be increasing and maybe advertising.
Psyche is correct that International and Altec for that matter are recognised because they both have had long term history and enormous money put into promoting both brands. There are many other products out there that are as good, but not well known due to lack of promotion.
Brand recognition is likely the biggest factor in getting product sales. But if you go into a shop and the product is not on the shelf, it won't get sold. So for the likes of Jotun, it's a good product, but when do you ever see it?
In the early days, both Epiglass and Altex had an aggressive Retail attitude. For a retailer, it was very hard to stock multiple products names. You were forced by the companies to stock one or the other. They gave wonderful enticements like display stands, paying for huge advertising billboards both inside and outside the shop, which made the shop look good as well. The more loyal the retailer was to the brand, often the better the discounting or some other incentive. Often there would be a sole retail distributor per area as well. The Supplier would not sell to a competing retailer.
Then NZ retail laws began changing. First change was if a retailer wanted to buy a product, the company had to supply. Of course, initially there were supply cost differences between competitor and original retailer. But eventually that changed as well. Especially when some retailers came together to gain better purchasing power. Or a retailer in one part of the Country would buy a shop in another part of the Country and they had the power of sales volume. Or they had that product in the one town and could now stock it in the other, where that brand may already have a prefered retailer.
Over the years, everything has changed. I am not at all sure it has been for the better.

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14 minutes ago, aardvarkash10 said:
4 hours ago, wheels said:

wharehouse

Is it in Whanganui, or Whangarei?

I have a feeling that is a comment that has sailed right over my head  :-)

But in case not, the original Wharehouse was in Auckland.

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On 12/05/2022 at 7:13 AM, Zozza said:

Good post Psyche.  I googled 'Durepox' (which sounds like an unfortunate skin condition) and it sounds like good stuff.
The fact it acts as both a sealer, primer, and top coat has got to be a game changer, yet I see it was used on Blakes ETNZ which was many years ago.
Some of these companies are pretty useless at promoting their product - and Resene should have been promoting this product extensively years and years ago and getting it into the Burnsco's of this world.

As far as 'International Paints' go, it may good stuff but it is ridiculously expensive...and they are also using the Countdown / New World business of monopolising the NZ market and charging exorbitant prices.

On NZ yachties being traditionally conservative - well I must be part of the new breed then as I don't really give a sh*t about all the old conservative NZ yachtie thinking (I chose a junk rig after all) and I will try any product or equipment that has good refs and reviews and is reasonably priced.

I find resenes lack of promotion of Durepox promotion in the marine market mystifying . I too only recently found out about it , maybe they sell enough in other markets that advertising in the marine market doesn’t matter .

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17 hours ago, wheels said:

I have a feeling that is a comment that has sailed right over my head  :-)

But in case not, the original Wharehouse was in Auckland.

The first warehouse I remember was on a back street in Takapuna and was a bit like an emporium style shop ….was that the first store ? 

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15 minutes ago, Ex Machina said:

I find resenes lack of promotion of Durepox promotion in the marine market mystifying . I too only recently found out about it , maybe they sell enough in other markets that advertising in the marine market doesn’t matter .

The marine market is tiny, they sell truckloads for industrial use.  Try googling it in the US, 4 litres is $450 so we get a pretty sweet deal here

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3 minutes ago, Psyche said:

What are you talking about?

I'm riffing on Wheel's spelling of Wharehouse.  Kinda like doodling on your notepad whilst listening to the hold music in the endless queue of people attempting to speak to a major retailer

 

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Initially Durapox was never meant for the Marine Market here in NZ and is why we don't see it well promoted for such here. It was used mainly in the Automotive and Industrial markets. Some of you that have a bit of Car paint background will know the name 2K, which is the primer.
In fact Resene actually advertised it to the Automotive Industry as having been used on the AV boats. Yet as far as I know, it was never promoted as such in the Marine industry. Go figure.
Maybe Resin view it as they already have enough products in the Marine industry, why complicate it more.
Oz promote it heavily for Marine use.

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11 minutes ago, aardvarkash10 said:

I'm riffing on Wheel's spelling of Wharehouse.  Kinda like doodling on your notepad whilst listening to the hold music in the endless queue of people attempting to speak to a major retailer

Haha, I didn't click.
As some of my students used to say, the Wurry Furry (spelt phonetically) to be a play on the Maori pronounciation of it.

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1 hour ago, aardvarkash10 said:

I'm riffing on Wheel's spelling of Wharehouse.  Kinda like doodling on your notepad whilst listening to the hold music in the endless queue of people attempting to speak to a major retailer

 

You missed my Wha....t

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Reigniting this after a year to see if anyone knows of a NZ Distributor or sort of a contactor that can import Alexseal paints, or if your only option is to get imported yourself via the Aussie distributor?
I don't mind paying a bit more if I don't have to faff about with the import paperwork.
Cheers

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