Michael Irving, a Global Trainer from BASF, spent a week at the Amoy Innovation Center training a Latvian company and students from Vantaa Vocational College Varia. Irving shares Amoy’s mission, emphasizing the importance of connecting students with businesses and openly sharing knowledge to develop the car painting field and attract more talent.
With over 25 years of experience, the Latvian company Rags specializes in importing, exporting, and supplying paint systems and essential car body repair materials to end users and partners across Europe. Recently, they expanded their paint portfolio to include BASF R-M products, seeking inspiration and the latest knowledge on product utilization.
To enhance their expertise, Rags traveled to the Amoy Innovation Center in Vantaa, Finland, where Michael Irving from BASF provided a hands-on introduction to the products. The customized training included evaluating individual abilities, addressing skill gaps, and fulfilling specific needs.
“We aim to expand our market reach and empower our sales team with up-to-date knowledge. While we have our training facilities, we’re exploring the benefits of Amoy’s modern facilities for future use. We find them well-suited for building connections and learning,” shared Janis Stokmanis, CEO of Rags.
The training began with Rags and extended during the week to students from Vantaa Vocational College Varia. Irving values BASF’s 10-year partnership with Amoy, praising their easygoing attitude, eagerness to learn, and skill in collecting valuable customer feedback. He regards them as a key partner in the Baltics and Scandinavia.
Ensuring a unified approach and proper product use for optimal results is crucial. For example, R-M Agilis, designed for wet-on-wet application, requires a mindset shift for painters. This technique, which involves applying one layer of paint directly over another without waiting for it to dry, saves time, improves workflow efficiency, and reduces the carbon footprint – making it ideal for busy body shops.
Another shared vision of BASF and Amoy is to attract new talent to the car painting industry by offering contemporary insights. Irving, recognizing the global shortage of car painters, emphasizes the need for inspirational role models and advocates for excellence and continuous learning. For instance, Irving travels around the world, from Scandinavia to South Africa, having started as a car painter who simply wanted to do things right. Throughout his long career, he has observed the underappreciation of car painters.
“Car painters are undervalued despite the complexity of cars and paint colors. Car accidents can be a major inconvenience, as vehicles are significant investments. Customers expect their cars to be repaired to perfection or even better than new ones after an accident. Hopefully, a few in that class will remember the person who inspired them and think, ‘I want to be like that one day,’ just as it happened to me.”
