TeknosPro fills a gap at the top end of the UK paint market

The name TeknosPro is a new one to many tradesmen in the UK building industry, and yet they may be more familiar with Teknos products than they realise.

The Finnish company is a major supplier of industrial coatings. In fact, Teknos is the leading supplier of specialist exterior joinery coatings in the UK and Ireland. Many everyday building products, such as mouldings, skirtings, doors and windows are delivered to site pre-finished with Teknos primers, undercoats and high-build topcoats. 

The joiners on site never see the Teknos name on the products they install and, until last year, Teknos did not actively market paints and coatings for the trade. Hence the brand has kept a low profile in the UK.

Now that has changed with the launch of TeknosPro, a new business with a portfolio of multi-surface products designed specifically for professional decorators.

The TeknosPro collection features specialist finishes for internal walls, metal and wood, and is ideal for all trade applications, including both new-build and maintenance projects. The products are all easy to apply and based on low-odour, quick drying water-based technology with quality backed up by the Teknos “Paint with Pride” quality pledge.

Even if unfamiliar with the name, users of the TeknosPro range should rest assured that by choosing these products, they are choosing products from one of Europe’s leading suppliers.  Teknos has a network of agents and distributors worldwide and supports Teknos sales companies in 22 countries.

The products are maunfactured in modern production facilities in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia – and more recently, China. 

Developed for maximum durability and lasting beauty, TeknosPro coatings are time-proven in the harshest environments. The products are all low-odour water-based formulations with VOC levels significantly below current and proposed legislative levels. They are of course free of heavy metal additives, too.

The TeknosPro range of wood and metal paints can match any rival brands for quality and performance but they have one unbeatable advantage in that they are guaranteed to be compatible with the factory-applied Teknos finishes used on the majority of joinery products in the UK.

This is an important consideration in the maintenance field where the use of generic trade coatings cannot be guaranteed to match the original finishes.

Proven to withstand the harsh Scandinavian climate, TeknosPro external coatings have nothing to fear from the milder British weather, and they are equally at home inside the building.

The company’s wall and ceiling paints excel both in terms of quality and ease of application. Fast drying times ensure rapid job completion and superb finishes.

The range of interior wall and ceiling paints includes a variety of formulations for different applications. The TeknosPro 10 matt wall paint range, an acrylic-based product ideal for finishing previously-painted surfaces; TeknosPro 5 Full matt – an alkyd reinforced acrylic paint for interior surfaces – is suitable for unpainted or painted surfaces while Timantti 20, a semi-matt product, is ideal for humid spaces such as bathrooms and has good washability and abrasion resistance.

An anti-microbial version, Timantti Clean, is also available and is perfect for locations where spotless hygiene is important.

All the products in the TeknosPro range have been developed in cooperation with professional painters in order to obtain the optimum combination of performance and usability. 

As a result, the Futura range of wood and metal paints produce smooth surfaces that are harder and more durable than normal interior paints while being less prone to dragging or slumping. Used with TeknosPro primers, they are ideal for previously unfinished surfaces. They are equally suitable for previously-painted surfaces and touch-up painting can be performed flawlessly.

Following its launch last year, TeknosPro has embarked upon a search to appoint independent retail distributors through which to sell the products.

In February this year, the company appointed its first regional distributor, Glasgow-based South West Paint Supplies. The independent, privately-owned company, founded in 1949, has a reputation for providing quality products and delivering a first-rate service to both professional and DIY customers.

Since the appointment of South West Paint Supplies, TeknosPro has added a second distributor, Russell Paints of Edinburgh.

More distributors will be added in the weeks and months to come. “Ideally I would love to see a distributor in every major city in the UK within the next two years,” says TeknosPro managing director, Michelle Alcock.

In contrast to the majority of bulk paint suppliers, whose products are on the shelves of all the big merchant chains, TeknosPro is going for exclusivity and targeting the top end of the UK market:

“These are high quality products for the professional user,” comments Michelle, “so we are looking for independent stockists who know the market and want a premium product to enhance their offering. Our distributor will have exclusivity in their own regions and won’t be in competition with their neighbours.

“We are avoiding the big chains because a focus on volume inevitably means a race to the bottom on price”.