hange is in the air. Actually it might be more appropriate to say that it is in the water. With Europe curtailing all solvent based auto paint sales by January 1, 2007, not to mention Canada gearing up for a similar action over the next three years, converting to waterborne paint systems is fast
becoming a top priority for progressive shops. A number of collision repair facilities have already made this transition. One such facility is False Creek Collision Plus. A 6,000 square foot shop located in busy downtown Vancouver, BC, False Creek Collision Plus is owned and operated by Bernhard Rubbert. Those who know Bernhard wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his facility has already made the jump to using water based paint, in this case BASF’s Glasurit 90 Line. Employed with BASF Coatings for 27 years, Bernhard spent more than 15 of those years in the automotive refinish division.In fact, Bernhard was a key player in bringing Glasurit 90 Line to the North American marketplace from Europe. I worked with BASF in the United States for almost three years in the 1990s. I was responsible for marketing Glasurit,” says Bernhard. “At that time we really needed to introduce the waterborne technology, specifi cally to California, which had the most stringent guidelines. Would False Creek Collision Plus be using waterborne coatings today if Bernhard hadn’t already been intimately involved with it? It’s not at all unlikely. One thing you can say for sure about Bernhard is that he is not afraid to try new and different things. After all, he left a career at BASF spanning nearly three decades to own and operate a collision repair facility. When I made the decision to try something new, I was immediately thinking that I would stick with the collision repair business,” says Bernhard.

"Those who know Bernhard wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his facility has already made the jump to using water based paint."

It certainly isn’t unheard of for someone who works in one sector of the automotive industry to move to another sector. But how many of those people made the jump so wholeheartedly that they were willing to move their whole family from BASF Coatings headquarters in Munster, Germany to a new life in Vancouver?

NEW EXPERIENCE

Originally we were going to move to the United States,” says Bernhard. “We had already lived in Michigan and we liked it.” That plan was revised somewhat after a family vacation to Vancouver in 2004. Bernhard had been to the city before on business and knew it very well, but British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast was a new experience for his wife, Luise, and their sons, Th omas and Christian. They fell in love with the area,” says Bernhard. “The decision to move here was one that my family and I took together. Bernhard and his son Christian emigrated in April, and Thomas followed in November. Luise will hop the pond after the sale of the family’s property in Germany is completed. After deciding on an area in which to live, Bernhard conducted exhaustive research in order to find the right kind of shop. He eventually found False Creek Collision by searching the Internet. Bernhard says he chose this facility in particular both for where it is situated and for its capacity for future growth.

 False Creek Collision Ltd. was already a well established business, and been going for about 45 years when I purchased it,” says Bernhard. “It’s definitely a good location, right in downtown Vancouver. It’s not a gigantic facility, but it has immense potential. Bernhard said that from the beginning he knew that his shop would be using a waterborne paint system. What he didn’t know was that making this transition would make False Creek Collision Plus the fi rst shop in all of British Columbia to use water based coatings. Not only was False Creek Collision Plus the very fi rst, at the time of publication they are still the only facility operating in the province that uses waterborne paint. This came as a bit of a surprise to Bernhard. His years in marketing and developing paint systems, specifically Glasurit 90 Line gives him the perspective to know that water based paint solutions do work in the collision repair setting. Glasurit 90 Line was first introduced in Europe about 12 years ago,” says Bernhard. “By this point it can be considered a well proven technology. BASF’s waterborne off ering isn’t exactly a newcomer to the Canadian scene either, having already been available here for several years. Michael Kukura is a BASF Technical Representative based out of Vancouver, BC. He believes that waterborne coatings will become more dominant over the next three years.
Bernhard is going down the right avenues to move his business forward,” says Michael. “As far as I know, his was the first collision facility in the province to work with waterborne paint as a stand alone system, and it remains the only one at the present time. Michael also notes that Glasurit 90 Line is a technology with a proven track record, pointing out that what works in Europe will work in Canada. This is totally different from the old water based lacquers,” says Michael. “Many of the OEMs are now using low VOC coatings in their factories. Right now, clearcoats are still a catalyzed product, but low VOC clearcoats are being developed.”

HIGHEST STANDARDS

Bernhard is never slow in assessing opportunities and making a decision. Very soon after Bernhard purchased the facility, False Creek Collision became part of the Collision Plus network. Collision Plus is composed of independently owned and operated collision repair facilities located throughout British Columbia. I like very much their approach to the network concept,” says Bernhard. “They insist on adhering to the highest standards in performance, and they off er the best technology exchange. All of the shops have their own territories, so we don’t compete with each other. That means we can make sure that we go out of our way to help one another. Shawn Nelson is the Managing Partner for the Collision Plus network. He says that Bernhard’s management style fits in very well with the organization’s focus and mission.Bernhard may be new to managing a facility, but feedback I’ve received from the industry can be summed up in two words: honesty and integrity,” says Shawn. “After talking to him for a few minutes you can tell that he cares about the industry and he cares about the safety of his workforce.” Life holds many decisions for each of us. Sometimes these choices are not so easy to make. But for Bernhard Rubbert, the decision to use waterborne paints was clear. As we head towards 2010, it is shops like False Creek Collision Plus that will be leading the way.