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3rd August 2022 | 11:35 am | Holly Newnham

Interview with Alan Shufflebotham

Founder of Coatech Ltd

It was great to chat to our founder, Alan Shufflebotham, to find out more about the origins of Coatech – how and why it started and more about the industry and products.

We also asked Alan for his best piece of life/business advice and the answer really inspired us all…

“Never be scared to go out of your comfort zone, do your thorough research and go for it.

Life’s too short to wait for second chances!” 

Why did you start Coatech and enter this particular market? 

“I spent seven years flying all around the world setting up Distributors for Resin Based Maintenance Materials, Coatings, Epoxy Repair materials etc. These countries included America, South America, Kenya, South Africa, Europe, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia. Given the variety of different climates, ranging from hot & dry, to damp and humid, this was extremely interesting as all the materials had to be tailored to each specific market. This gave me a very good understanding of the market and an even better understanding of the qualities & usage of Resin in such varied conditions”

“More importantly, I witnessed how successful the Distributors were at selling these materials and how well their businesses developed. After getting married I did not want to spend so much time abroad and decided, based on the success I had seen with the Overseas distributors, to set myself up in business selling and applying all types of Resin based systems”

An accomplishment in your career?

“The company I worked for was based in Harrogate & the biggest accomplishment was starting as a commission only rep, then being asked to move from North Wales to be based at the office in Harrogate and rising in status to Exports Director”

Where / when did you get started?

“After getting married and deciding to reduce all overseas travel, I moved back to North Wales and set Coatech up in 1987”

Favourite job?

“There are many favourite jobs, such as the 10,000m² Resin Bonded job at Grosvenor Park in Chester, the Anti slip surfacing of the loading platforms at the London Eye but the memorable jobs are the surfacing of various rides at Alton Towers theme Park. In particular, I loved the installation of the ‘Don’t Look Down’ logo on the Oblivion ride, a feature that has been seen by millions of people”

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