Demand for exotic colors of auto paint seen to rise

“Three years from now, there will be plenty of exotic colors out in the market, even impossible colors that consumers could think of,” said  Cebu Unique Trade Corporation’s Rhonell Yu Tiu.

In an interview during the 8th Motorshow, Tiu said that with the increase of vehicles in the city and the change of consumer’s lifestyle, the paint industry is seeing a more positive demand for its products in Cebu’s automotive industry.

Servicing different industries from industrial, consumer and the automotive industry, Cebu Unique Trade Corporation has seen a more demanding client-base in the automotive industry so it aligns its growth in that industry sector.

Cebu Unique also sees more growth potential in the automotive industry as it captures about 60- 70% of its sales.

“The market for house paints is not so strong so we did not concentrate on that segment,” Tiu said.

Cebu Unique has seven dealers nationwide but in terms of sales; they have stronger presence in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.

To be at par with the different trend of the demanding automotive industry Tiu said that, “as manufacturers, we need to innovate new colors so that we will always be at par with the current trend.”

Tiu revealed that every year, car manufacturers change car colors and this usually takes place at the months of September or October.  So every six months they also change their color scheme to stay competitive. As a local manufacturer, they do product development which usually takes six months to be completed. He added that their research is usually based only on the internet, suppliers input and available chemical sample.

He also pointed out that for the car color trends; we are actually almost five years left behind from the international trend. This he said is due to the lack of technology for product development.

For 2008, Tiu revealed that special colors known as tri-colors will be out in the market.  These tri-colors are tri-dimensional shading, which reflects different shading for every angle. But in the US, Chrome paints are in-demand and here in the local market, chrome is still unavailable and with the phasing out of the owner-type jeeps, he said that it might take a long time before the local market adopts this trend if ever it comes out in the market.

 Cebu Unique made most of the repainting job of the vehicles featured in the latest Motorshow. Tiu shared that they are expecting that their participation in the event would gain them positive increase in their sales as they have highlighted their latest product to potential clients.

 “We participated in every Motorshow in Cebu and this one is a real Motorshow as it is international. From our last experiences, we have proved that joining such event is advantageous on our part so hopefully after the show, our sales will increase.” – Rhia de Pablo