As many of you across the business know we are currently working on a collaboration with Vullow and Liquitex. Vullow could be considered as an innovative progression of ‘Paint by Numbers’, using technology by way of an app, which breaks images down into layers, which are then projected onto a canvas, each layer is then painted in a specific colour tone to build up to the final image.

Hans from Vullow is currently in the US having meetings with potential customers/clients and made time to stop by DC4 to meet the team and give them the opportunity to give it a try. 

As you can see the results were fantastic 😊, the team painted some fabulous self-portraits.

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UK Trade Tour – Lindengruppen

Over the past couple of days, as many of you will be aware, Colart had the pleasure of hosting the Lindengruppen board at the London Hub. As part of their visit, Colart UK was delighted to have the wonderful opportunity to share some of the great work that the team has been delivering in the UK to build our brands and inspire every artist by arranging and hosting a UK Trade Tour.

The tour commenced on the afternoon of day 1 with a visit to the CASS flagship store in Islington and a meeting with the owner and business founder Mark Cass. Cass is a strategic partner to Colart UK, and this meeting provided a great occasion to showcase our brands, business partnership and collaboration that has been developed.

On day 2, the tour started at CASS Charing Cross, one of the retailer’s smallest physical yet largest turnover stores. This store is steeped in history, being over 115 years old, where British Prime Minister Winston Churchill purchased his paints and Lawrence of Arabia bought his ink. Bringing us back to the modern day, the Cass store manager engaged at ease with our guests, explaining the knowledge and passion she and her team have for Colart brands through the rolling training & education programme that is delivered by Stephanie Nebbia from the UK team. It was also clear that location, location, location really matters with this being an incredibly busy store and close proximity to key institutions including the recently re-opened National Portrait Gallery enabling this CASS store to satisfy the consumer needs of shoppers and their love of all things Winsor & Newton and Liquitex.

Our tour then took us to the iconic Foyles bookstore at Charing Cross. Foyles is now part of a wider book business comprising Foyles, Waterstones and Blackwell’s and represents an exciting opportunity for Colart. The business has recently diversified into the art category with a highly curated edit of brands being given dedicated space in a select number of stores. We were able to share the sizeable brand presence that has been secured for the Winsor & Newton brand and explain the journey that we are on with this chain of retail stores. Our final stop on the UK Trade Tour was to another iconic store, this time London Graphic Centre, a business now owned by Theo Paphitis, the retail magnate and star of the BBC Dragon’s Den. We were greeted by the stores’ COO and leadership team and were able to share how our brands are performing strongly, show where the team have secured a commanding brand presence and experience the buzz in store with their Student Day campaign in full flow.

A super big thank you from me to the entire team at Colart UK for all the individual and collective contributions that ensured this UK Trade Tour was a success. Special thanks to UK Marketing especially Charlotte and Francheska for the digital activations of our brands that we work so closely with CASS on, to Stephanie Nebbia for the engaging and informative “The past informs the Present” session held at the London Hub and for the partnership training program that we deliver to CASS, and to Eden Cook-Watson for the positive impact he made with CASS at the recent CASS student day event which Mark Cass had kept on display to show Lindengruppen because he was so impressed with it. Special thanks to Martyn Symes, Emma Mills and Guy Peeke-Vout from the Fine Art Channel for all the work that is achieved day in day out with these businesses and for all the behind the scenes planning, preparation and set up as well as the in-person attendance from Guy on the day. Thank you also to Romain and Gail for their support throughout. And finally, a very big thank you to Amani who ensured every part of the Lindengruppen visit went smoothly including super slick transportation plan for the UK Trade Tour.

Best, Anthony

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