PPG Customer Autoklinikka & Werskta Presents Strong Partnership to PPG Investors

Our aim at PPG is to partner with our customers, providing them with benefits and support that surpass the transaction of paint.

This can be seen across the business, but more recently when Patrik Puskala, CEO of Autoklinikka & Shareholder of Werksta, a leading independent Nordic damage repair chain, presented at PPG Investor Day on 12^th June 2022 in front of 20 Investors on the company’s strong partnership with PPG.

PPG top management were in attendance, including Tim Knavish, Chief Operating Officer, Vince Morales, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Diane Kappas, Vice President of Global Sustainability, Meri Vainikka, Vice President of Architectural Coatings EMEA North & East, and John Bruno, Vice President of Investor Relations.

With 85 repair workshops across Scandinavia and 900 employees, handling approximately 80,000 car damage repairs and 40,000 glass damage repairs per year, Werksta had its work cut out prior to its decision to centralise all paint volume to PPG in 2019.

Before partnering with PPG, the business had several paint suppliers, no scale benefits, no coordinated training, a wide range of non-paint materials and no possibility to gain competitive advantage from paint segments. Since transitioning from a multi-supplier model to a one partner exclusive agreement with PPG, Werksta has seen significant benefits gained during the first two years.

Together with PPG, Werksta has managed to find a solution to one common challenge of the collision paint industry: Waste. Using PPG’s innovative automated paint mixing machine MOONWALK®, installed in 50 of Werksta’s workshop locations, Werksta’s employees have been able to reduce waste, in both time and materials, by being able to produce the exact amount required of paint mixes - with colour accuracy way beyond manual mixing - and freeing up painters’ time for other activities.

As well as satisfying the customer’s need to reduce waste, this has also improved the health and wellbeing of Werksta’s employees and contributed to its aim of responsible consumption and production and climate action.

Another common industry challenge that the partnership with PPG helped Werksta solve was the lack of control of non-paint products. PPG helped Werksta standardise non-paint materials and chemicals by reducing over 250 suppliers to less than 10. 85% of the chemical products were also reduced, resulting in improved quality and employee safety.

Commenting on the day and partnership, Patrik Puskala, CEO of Autoklinikka & Shareholder of Werksta, said: “It was great to be able to present and share how our partnership with PPG has benefitted our business over the past couple of years. We have been able to not only improve our processes but also our employees’ wellbeing and roles in short time. I look forward to continuing to work with PPG as we explore new innovations together and discover the future of the refinish industry.” 

The collaboration with Autoklinikka and Werksta, and the company’s praise regarding MoonWalk, highlights how important it is for PPG to partner with our customers to create sustainable innovations that drive mutual value.

Jonathan Hatfield, PPG Business Director North Europe, explained: “If our customers succeed, PPG succeeds. That is why it is so important we continue to bring paint and digital solutions to help our customers improve their competitiveness. I would like to thank our Nordics team who have been instrumental in growing and supporting this partnership’’