The leading paint manufacturer in the Caribbean, Harris Paints has become the first paint manufacturer in the Eastern Caribbean to have their products tested and added to the Approved Products List (APL) by the Master Painters Institute (MPI), proving unequivocally that Caribbean manufactured products can surpass or be on par with global competitors and top international brand names.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, MPI is an Institute dedicated to the establishment of quality standards and quality assurance programs, training, and publications for the architectural paint and coatings sector in the USA and Canada.
The institute publishes an Approved Products Listing that groups paints in classes based on their performance characteristics relative to their intended usage, as a resource for architects and other paint specifiers to select only the best suited paints for their projects.
Products listed in the APL have been tested to ensure they meet rigorous performance requirements. Testing is varied for each category, and includes ASTM methods for such as flexibility, gloss, adhesion, accelerated weathering, and several in-house developed tests to ensure the products can perform where they’re used.
The MPI performance-based paint and painting specifications and associated Approved Products Listing are used by the US Military; the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA); by the Architect institute of America MasterSpec, referenced by approximately half of US architects; by NASA for facilities; by the Canadian Government’s National Master Specification; and thousands of other North American designers, and facility managers.
Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Luke Ticknor said that the results validated Harris Paints’ long-standing commitment to provide top quality products that are second to none and pointed out that the products approved were not just in one product line but were across five different product categories, demonstrating the bench strength across the Harris Paints range.
“We have done our own third-party testing for years, and constantly come out on top, but there are limits to how much of that data we can publish and share, and limits to how that test data has been accepted by the local and international architectural community” stated Ticknor. “By having MPI test and approve our products, architects and engineers can now objectively and confidently specify our products for their projects, knowing they will perform very well or even better than the others that are available in the market.”
Expanding on the achievement Ticknor explained, “the certification process is quite costly from our perspective and within a line, products are broadly similar so we took a strategic approach and focused on key products that are staples for professionals. These included the main finishes in our premium Ulttima line, the professional-grade products in our Pro Speed Cover range, concrete and drywall primer and our environmentally-friendly zero VOC Ulttima Pure products which is important for projects with sustainable building goals – and we will add more in future”
As the leading independent resource for the paint and coatings sector in the USA and Canada, the MPI also provides training and certification programs for members of the industry. Beyond product certification, Harris Paints enrolled over 15 key sales and staff across the region, and there are a dozen who have now passed the robust training program and have been awarded an Architectural Coatings Technologist designation by the MPI, including Pamela Brown, from the Dominican team.
