Dulux has launched a new partnership as part of its Colour of the Year 2019 initiative. The joint venture with author and broadcaster, Fearne Cotton, is designed to help homeowners embrace colour in their home. The collaboration with the TV personality will also help professional decorators communicate the best use
Dulux Academy has supported National Apprenticeship Week for the third consecutive year. This year’s theme is ‘Blaze a Trail’, which aims to showcase and celebrate the passion and energy that apprentices bring. Working across its college partners, Dulux Academy has actively involved and celebrated the passion of seventy-five apprentices, taking
The people of Oxfordshire are being invited to take part in the search for the best painter and decorator in the region. Organised by the Oxford Kidlington, Cowley, Abingdon and Banbury Dulux Decorator Centres, along with Jack FM, the region-wide competition aims to find the superstar of decorating – whether
The 2018 On the Tools Training Excellence Award has been awarded to Dulux Academy. The awards, which celebrate and reward construction workers, subcontractors, tools and equipment manufacturers and construction companies from across the UK, were held at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham. All entries for the awards are independently judged by
The Dulux Academy has been officially recognised as an outstanding provider of training by becoming a CiTB Approved Training Organisation (CiTB ATO). The endorsement is a result of the exceptional training provided by the Dulux Academy where courses designed to help decorators upskill, build their business and hone their design
Dulux has been named the UK’s most innovative brand by BrandZ, the largest global brand equity platform, in its second annual review. The 2018 BrandZ list places the paint brand ahead of names such as Dyson, Brewdog, Innocent and Sky, hailing its innovation in product development, its world leading colour
Dulux Academy in Slough as well as at Leeds College will be offering free courses in decoration to some 50 young lucky potential apprentices in March, from the 7th to the 9th of the next coming month. This spattering of generosity comes from the academy’s commitment and support to the
Within the painting and commercial decorating industry, there is a complex concoction of issues, both with regard to the industry’s image and the difficulties that those who maintain or construct buildings face in finding reputable, quality painting contractors for their projects. This is where the Dulux Trade Contract Partnership Scheme
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
Dulux has launched a new partnership as part of its Colour of the Year 2019 initiative. The joint venture with author and broadcaster, Fearne Cotton, is designed to help homeowners embrace colour in their home. The collaboration with the TV personality will also help professional decorators communicate the best use of colour to their customers and encourage homeowners to embrace new, ‘on trend’ shades in their homes. The videos produced with Fearne talk about how to create stylish interiors and will act as a tool for professional painters and decorators to demonstrate how and why the Dulux Colour of the Year, Spiced Honey™️ and the supporting ColourFutures™️ 2019 palettes work so well in the home. “I’m fascinated by the science of colour and the power it has over mood and behaviour. Changing your home – your most personal space – has the power to create positive change in all areas of your life, from creating a space to think to empowering us to act. Spiced Honey™️ is about fostering a sense of positivity with the outside world again. It’s about letting the light in,” commented Fearne. 2019 marks the 16th year of the global ColourFutures™ annual trend forecast from Dulux Trade. An expert panel of colour designers, design specialists, trend forecasters, architects and editors from around the world joined together to capture a universal theme, resulting in a colour that suitably embodies our mood of the moment for the year ahead – leading to Spiced Honey™️ to represent 2019. “Supporting professional decorators is a key priority and we know that their customers are often seeking reassurance before they commit to a new colour in the home,” said Karen Wilkinson, Dulux Trade Marketing Lead. “Fearne Cotton is someone that the homeowner audience can really relate to and we hope that by partnering with her and producing assets for everyone to see and use, we’re making the job that little bit easier for painters and decorators, who pride themselves on giving every customer a brilliant finish.” “It’s not an easy job to convince proud homeowners to trust you to redecorate their most personal spaces, so anything we can do to help our professional decorators to do this is worthwhile. Helping our trades professionals communicate the added benefits of colour in the home will help them build their businesses and stand out from the competition,” Karen added.
Dulux Academy has supported National Apprenticeship Week for the third consecutive year. This year’s theme is ‘Blaze a Trail’, which aims to showcase and celebrate the passion and energy that apprentices bring. Working across its college partners, Dulux Academy has actively involved and celebrated the passion of seventy-five apprentices, taking its ‘Water-based Challenge’ on the road. The challenge aims to educate and inform apprentices about the benefits of using water-based products and demonstrate the practical application tips and techniques which are required to create a fantastic finish. Following a theory session, apprentices received their own application accessories pack and took on a panelled door challenge using the Dulux Colour of the Year 2019, Spiced Honey, competing to be recognised as the individual winner of an exclusive National Apprenticeship Week Golden Paintbrush Award. “National Apprenticeship Week is an important date in our annual events calendar. The partnership between industry and education provides an opportunity to inspire apprentices, their employers, college tutors and the painting and decorating industry as a whole,” said Vickie Mather from Dulux Academy. “We’ve outlined our commitments to the future of the decorating profession in our ‘Joint Minds Charter’ that our college partnerships have signed up to. This charter confirms the direct student benefits involved in partnering with Dulux Academy. To date we have delivered over 1,000 hours of supported learning to college students and apprentices demonstrating the joint commitment to upskilling the next generation of trade professionals,” added Vickie. National Apprenticeship Week aims to shine a spotlight on apprenticeships as a great path for people at any stage of their career; from those starting out, to those wanting to reskill or change careers. It comes at a time when the need for trade apprentices has never been greater, with a 34 per cent decline in painting and decorating qualifications being achieved through colleges. So it’s fitting that Dulux Academy has also recruited a new painting and decorating apprentice, Laura Ashby. Laura is a career changer with a passion for interiors and decorating, she joins the team to gain practical experience alongside completing her formal qualification. “As a mature student, returning to college would be a big financial commitment so the opportunity to learn on the job from industry leaders was very appealing. The Dulux Academy Painting and Decorating apprenticeship will provide me with the chance to make the move into an industry I’ve always aspired to work in. I’m looking forward to learning as much as possible about something I have a real passion for from experts in the field,” Laura said.
The people of Oxfordshire are being invited to take part in the search for the best painter and decorator in the region. Organised by the Oxford Kidlington, Cowley, Abingdon and Banbury Dulux Decorator Centres, along with Jack FM, the region-wide competition aims to find the superstar of decorating – whether it’s because they’ve spruced up a community centre with a lick of paint or turned a house into a dream home with their top quality wallpaper skills. Along with the title of Oxfordshire’s painter and decorator of the year, the winner will win £1,000 in Dulux Decorator Centre vouchers for themselves and a Dulux Decorating Academy training course of their choice up to the value of £250. Two runners up will win £500 in vouchers for second place and £250 for third place to spend in Dulux Decorator Centres. While all five finalists will receive a Dulux goody bag. Entries are open until the 25th November, with both tradespeople and the general public encouraged to nominate themselves or people they know by going to www.oxfordshiredecorator2018.co.uk A shortlist of five will be drawn up by a panel of expert Dulux Decorating Centre judges but it will be the public that will have the final say – getting a chance to vote for their favourite throughout December. “We know the talents of our local decorators and see the end results of their handiwork in homes across the county. That’s why we want to reward them all and recognise the best of the best with the title of Oxfordshire’s painter and decorator of the year, as we see this as the perfect opportunity to celebrate all that’s great about painting and decorating in Oxfordshire,” said Gary Bilton, Regional Manager at Dulux Decorator Centre. “The region is really important to us, having just opened brand new stores in Cowley in October and in Abingdon earlier in the year – joining our two existing branches in Kidlington and Bambury. So we wanted to take the time to celebrate the talent that this area has produced,” added Gary. For any competition related questions please visit the Dulux Decorator Centres in Oxford Kidlington, Cowley, Abingdon and Bambury.
The 2018 On the Tools Training Excellence Award has been awarded to Dulux Academy. The awards, which celebrate and reward construction workers, subcontractors, tools and equipment manufacturers and construction companies from across the UK, were held at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham. All entries for the awards are independently judged by a panel of industry experts – On The Tools is the No1 social site for tradespeople to watch videos, read articles and share content, with more than two million followers on Facebook, Instagram and twitter. “This award coincided with our four year anniversary of starting work on the concept that is now known as Dulux Academy,” said Vickie Mather, Dulux Academy Manager. “In that time, we have welcomed more than 4,500 professional painters on to our courses ranging across every aspect of decoration including spray, wallpaper, colour selection, first aid and social media at our flagship Slough facility and across our network of college partners. We’re proud to be recognised against construction industry peers and establish ourselves as a credible training provider contributing to the upskilling and professionalising of the painting and decorating industry,” added Vickie Mather. The On the Tools awards, hosted by comedian Justin Moorhouse, handed out a total of 25 awards, including recognition of excellence in individual trades. It was therefore great to share the awards stage with Georgie Baker, a Dulux Select Decorator, who was nominated and voted for by the public audience as Painter & Decorator of the Year. Dulux Academy is the home of painting and decorating excellence. Its team of industry leading experts delivers learning experiences that celebrate the brand’s portfolio and proud heritage, showcase products and application innovation and embrace technology. Its courses can deliver increased knowledge and understanding, enabling those who chose Dulux Academy to meet their personal and professional ambitions.
The Dulux Academy has been officially recognised as an outstanding provider of training by becoming a CiTB Approved Training Organisation (CiTB ATO). The endorsement is a result of the exceptional training provided by the Dulux Academy where courses designed to help decorators upskill, build their business and hone their design knowledge are continuously delivered to defined and industry-agreed standards. Now approved courses – which include spray (Introduction, Advanced HVLP, Advanced Airless), craft skills (Gilding, Marbling, Graining) and wallpapering (spanning five courses from Digital Murals and Feature Walls, to Relief Papers) – will carry the coveted CiTB endorsement. This new status will also allow the Dulux Academy to pass on financial benefits to attendees. All attendees, who are registered with the CiTB and meet the general grants scheme eligibility requirements, will be part of the CiTB’s automated grant payments system. Short course grants are also available for all directly employed Pay As You Earn (PAYE) staff and all sub contractors, with between £30 and £70 available per individual. “Becoming a CiTB Approved Training Organisation is a key milestone in our ambition to develop skills across the decorating industry. Setting ourselves up provides instant benefit for our customers who are CiTB contributors and confirms our reputation for delivering quality training meeting the needs of the construction industry,” said Vickie Mather, Dulux Academy Manager. When enrolling on a course via www.duluxacademy.co.uk simply register your CITB registration number and the names of who you wish to claim for and Dulux Academy will manage the reimbursement. Launched in March 2016, Dulux Academy is the UK’s first dedicated academy for professionals in the domestic and commercial decoration industry. It offers a range of courses designed to help decorators develop their skills and expertise, putting them in the best position to set themselves apart from their competition and provide peerless – and in demand – services to their customers. To date, more than 4,500 individuals have trained with the Dulux Academy across their numerous UK locations.
Dulux has been named the UK’s most innovative brand by BrandZ, the largest global brand equity platform, in its second annual review. The 2018 BrandZ list places the paint brand ahead of names such as Dyson, Brewdog, Innocent and Sky, hailing its innovation in product development, its world leading colour expertise, its approach to sustainability and its commitment to new technology. Five specific developments were highlighter, including Dulux’s expertise in the art and science of colour, as represented by its annual Colour of the Year and ColourFutures™ 2019. The second was the brand’s pioneering stance on sustainability in moving appliers, specifiers and homeowners away from solvent-based paints by providing proactive education on the benefits of water-based formulas. The third development was Dulux’s commitment to technology to support homeowners, naming the Dulux Visualizer, specifically, for allowing any room to be ‘virtually’ decorated in any Dulux colour in an instant. Fourthly was the success of the Dulux Academy – launched in March 2017 and now in numerous locations UK-wide – in continuing to upskill the trade in new techniques such as spray and urban effects. Finally, the list also praised the brand’s dedication to quality, with the production of Dulux materials in the UK coming from the world’s most advanced and sustainable paint factory in Ashington, Northumberland, which opened in 2017. At the heart of the Dulux brand is our mission to add colour to people’s lives, because we know – when used effectively – it can be absolutely transformative,” said Kathryn Ledson, marketing director of Dulux. “Today’s accolade is testament to a UK-wide team of experts who work everyday to make a meaningful difference, ensuring we are continuously raising the bar when it comes the quality of our products, our leadership in colour and our commitment to cutting-edge consumer solutions. As a result of this tireless dedication to innovate, we ensure that – as a brand – our tools, services and expertise has the power to transform spaces and improve lives,” she added. All these innovations saw the brand value of Dulux, owned by Dutch paints and coatings company AkzoNobel, rise by almost a fifth (18%) year on year in the BrandZ list, which is run by advertising giant WPP, in association with market data group Kantar. This saw it place 50th overall in the list of the UK’s most valuable brands.
Dulux Academy in Slough as well as at Leeds College will be offering free courses in decoration to some 50 young lucky potential apprentices in March, from the 7th to the 9th of the next coming month. This spattering of generosity comes from the academy’s commitment and support to the ethos predicated by the National Apprenticeship Week, which every year celebrates the range (or lack of) of options that are currently available to the working people of today. With the amount of activities that will be available in order to show potential new employees the various (or lack of) options that are open (or closed) to them, it is important that companies like the Dulux Academy get on board with them and demonstrate the courses that they can provide to people wanting to start off in the decorating industry. National Apprenticeship Week has been going on for a decade: the Dulux Academy for a year. Therefore, it seems that some form of celebration of some kind is in order and the company will be offering a wide range of courses in decorating for free, where expert advice will be given on appliance, method and maintenance techniques in order to indicate what it is that makes the decorating industry what it is today. With the reported shortage of skilled workers in this country becoming an ever important issue that will need to be resolved at some point in the future by providing young people starting off in the life of work having more opportunities, it is evident that enterprises like the Dulux Academy are at least trying to encourage more people to see the benefits and realities of working in the decorating sector of the building and construction industry. Through this, it is clear that the Dulux Academy is doing its best to try and solve this problem by offering more free opportunities to 50 young people, something which other enterprises and companies ought to be doing in honor of National Apprenticeship Week.
Within the painting and commercial decorating industry, there is a complex concoction of issues, both with regard to the industry’s image and the difficulties that those who maintain or construct buildings face in finding reputable, quality painting contractors for their projects. This is where the Dulux Trade Contract Partnership Scheme comes in; a scheme that is not solely looking to champion the best commercial decorators, but looking to reshape the very image of the wider sector itself. Historically regarded as a skilled trade, commercial decorating is an integral part of any project development, both for new build and refurbishment. It offers the opportunity to entirely transform the interior of a building into an environment that enhances people’s lives. In recent years however, the sheer potential of this role has unfortunately been overlooked, as a result of the global recession, with cost-cutting prioritising over quality workmanship for the majority of projects. On this note, the Contract Partnership scheme is working hard to change this image and is targeting three core concepts capable of realigning the position of commercial decorating within the construction industry itself: the availability of quality workmanship, the inspiration of trust and reliance in commercial decorators playing a key role in construction projects, and the provision of a clear line of support offered to commercial decorators who are committed to elevating the reputation of the industry. Now boasting a network of some 250 approved decorators, the Contract Partnership scheme exists out of a combined need for Dulux Trade to champion the best of the best in the wider industry and drive forward the efficient use of high quality products. As such, the network is considered to be quite exclusive, with strict assessment procedures and requirements for commercial decorators to enter the scheme. While this may be quite a daunting concept for tradesmen, this exclusivity means that only quality approved contractors are able to enter the scheme and provides reassurance to the client that they are working with the highest quality tradesmen in the UK. The assessment and application process and auditing may be thorough but it gives contractors who get through the scheme an advantage, giving them a real USP with clients. Illustrating the driving ambition behind the Contract Partnership scheme as a way of highlighting excellence within the industry, Duncan Lochhead, Commercial Marketing Manager, explains: “We want to be championing the very best contractors who are working to drive continual improvements in the industry. Our aim is to encourage customers not to settle for poor workmanship, but to insist on quality commercial decorators. We can then, hopefully improve the focus on quality for all those operating in the market including those already in the partnership. This improvement is rewarded with incentives for members.” With its technical specification team consistently out in the field, providing support services for many of the UK’s leading asset managers and contractors, the Contract Partnership scheme is at the sharp end of the industry with a direct feed into the market and is therefore well placed to reflect the needs and wants of the modern-day building owner and contractor. The field resource significantly helps Dulux Trade understand the capabilities and professionalism displayed by commercial decorators across all projects. By not only recommending commercial decorators, but also monitoring the progress of individual projects, the Contract Partnership scheme is increasingly taking a central role in the sourcing and management of commercial decorating contracts across a wide range of projects. As a concerned stakeholder in the commercial decorating sector, the Contract Partnership scheme is integral to the future prosperity of the decorating industry, driving standards up and value into the wider construction industry itself – a responsibility which the scheme takes very seriously. As Lochhead further suggests: “We have a keen sense of responsibility towards all projects that we’re involved with. We follow projects through to completion to be sure that decoration goes well. We get a feel, on an ongoing basis, of who is delivering quality in the marketplace and then invite them to go through the assessment process. Rarely does a contractor pass the audit first time without improvement recommendations, but we provide help and support so they can make those improvements and reach the standards required to pass the audit.” The Contract Partnership scheme also improves the accessibility of such contractors through its web portal, an enhanced search-based website where some procurement processes can be undertaken on the website itself. This, in effect, offers something of a one-stop-shop service and is the first step to inspire clients to use highly skilled contractors to realise their ambitions of bringing colour into their projects. The website is a simple, reliable procurement solution for building owners and asset managers. This simple and efficient method of procurement, combined with the expertise and reliability of decorators on the scheme, is also confirmation of the Contract Partnership’s aspiration to encourage trust within the industry. Through the partnership, it is hoped that leading specifiers will be able to rest easy, knowing that they can rely on Contract Partnership commercial decorators to not only support the client’s vision of a building, but to bring innovative creations to the table which can completely and utterly transform environments. Explaining the importance of this trust and the potential for transformation, Lochhead details: “Our commitment and strategic ambition is to not only promote quality in the marketplace but also to. In doing so, we give clients the confidence to create an amazing transformation rather than a bland recoat in magnolia. You can make a huge difference to the users of a building through their visual experience of it; you can improve learning outcomes for education, healing outcomes in hospitals, productivity in office environments and more. Having skilled commercial decorators as part of their team gives specifiers confidence that they can deliver an amazing transformation.”
