Behind the brush

Profile Painters

Paul Eaton from Profile Painters has a passion for painting and teamwork. He talks about how the industry has changed and why he loves working with family.

Paul Eaton founded Profile Painters in 1990 and now has a team of around 30 working with him. They paint some of Auckland’s most beautiful homes and are proud to be a family-owned and operated business.

Paul Eaton founded Profile Painters in 1990 and now has a team of around 30 working with him. They paint some of Auckland’s most beautiful homes and are proud to be a family-owned and operated business.

“My wife Jody is in our office, she does our accounts; we’ve got Tony and Catherine, Jody’s cousins, who also work for us in the office; and then Alexia, our Quantity Surveyor – we didn’t realise initially but she’s distantly related as well,” says Paul.

“Now both of our boys, Cole and Logan, have done their apprenticeships and are on the team and running crews of their own. We’re on a five-year programme now where they’ll both take over the business and the next generation will run it.”

Brush beginnings

As it often does in the trade, the story started when Paul’s father picked up a paintbrush way back when.

“We always used to work with him during the school holidays,” Paul recalls. “He taught me how to paint and when I moved up to Auckland from Blenheim, he came up and worked with me for several large contracts.”

Today, as well as Profile being a family affair, Paul counts many committed long-termers as valued staff and puts it down to working with a team mentality.

“We operate so that everyone in the business prospers and we make sure our staff have a pathway where they can see that they can stay. We’ve still got people who have worked for us for 20, 25 and 33 years,” he says. “We’ve made a lot of changes and improvements over the years, and I think the guys can see how much better we run now compared with 20 years ago.”

Great expectations

The industry has also changed significantly over the past four decades, particularly customer expectations.

“The public is more challenging to manage. Increasingly they want to pay less but still expect exactly the same results,” says Paul. “We had to adapt our way of working to manage that, with pre-start meetings and getting a feel of where people’s expectations are at the outset.”

Painting some of the country’s most extraordinary properties also comes with its own set of rules, which Paul drills into the team.

“What we’ve really instilled into our guys is, say you see a couch on site: you might have paid $1000 for your couch, but that couch could be worth $100,000!” That’s definitely one way of making sure the team keeps their worksite tidy!

Family values

Paul says that working as a unit is a pleasure and one that many families don’t get to enjoy. “It’s nice to be able to be together – if that wasn't the case, you’d hardly ever see your family.”

Every generation has helped build knowledge in the business and brings a different perspective and skillset to the table. Employing his sons has been a major milestone for Paul.

“We said to the boys when they were at school, ‘You go and take whatever path you want and we support what you do, but this job is sitting here waiting,’” he says. “With our philosophy and the fact we all got on well, they’ve got on board and have run with it.”

Power in partnership

Paul is most proud of Profile’s enduring relationships that have been built and nurtured over the years.

“We’ve got clients where we painted the nursery for babies before they were born and last year, we painted two of those kids’ houses,” he says. “The fact that we’ve got staff who have been with us for so long is also testament to that.”

This family-focused, people-first ethos perfectly aligns with Resene. “What I like about Resene is that they want to do the very best by the trade and always say they’re trying to improve the standard of the trade across New Zealand – I really believe they do that.

“An example is that they’ve put on a training course for us about Dry Flex, so we’re training up all our staff on how to use Repair Care products. They’re happy to do that kind of thing.

“I love the Resene story. It’s a true New Zealand success story and it’s run by a New Zealand family, which is what we like about our business.”