To get his paint brand off the ground during the pandemic, Rob Abrahams spent his weekends hand-making samples on stickers laid out across fold-up tables and blowing hot air over them with hairdryers. “No one could do that for us, so we did it ourselves,” said Abrahams, 37.
Coat Paints sells premium paint online and competes with the likes of Farrow & Ball. Abrahams launched the business in 2020 with his friend Rob Green and five years on, they employ 43 people. Their colours are on the walls of tens of thousands of homes, largely in London.
Last year they sold £12.9 million worth of made-to-order paint pots at about £32 a litre, generating a profit — measured as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) — of £378,000. This year revenues are expected to hit £20 million, with expanding profits.
Coat’s colours feature quirky names such as Duvet Day and The Coal DropCOAT Paints
Coal dust rather than paint is in Abrahams’ blood. He grew up in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, where his father’s side of the family had historically been miners. His mother was a midwife and he has three younger sisters.
At his local state secondary he was “the clever one at quite a rough school”, and when he wanted to do A-level French, the school agreed to run a bespoke solo class just for him. Then came a business degree at Leeds University from 2006 to 2010, before Abrahams secured a place on a graduate scheme at BMW.
It was there he met Green, sparking a lifelong friendship. While Green moved into product-based roles at 3M, the adhesives to electronics group, and the paints and coatings company Sherwin-Williams, owner of Valspar and Ronseal, Abrahams stayed with BMW until 2015.
He then joined Carwow, the online vehicle marketplace, after it had a run-in with BMW. “I thought, ‘Someone doesn’t like what [Carwow] is doing, which means it’s interesting.’ So I reached out to the founder,” Abrahams recalled. He was given a job with no title and a “blank sheet of paper” to work on product expansion.
Joining when the team stood at just 20 people, he watched it scale up to more than 400, gaining a first-hand insight into venture capital and business modelling. It convinced him that founding a company was a viable career path.
Abrahams’ first attempt at entrepreneurship came in 2018 with Off Paper, which aimed to replace traditional CVs with psychometric-based personality assessments. The venture did not work out, in part due to his lack of experience in the recruitment industry. He was a “little bit naive”, he admitted.
Looking for his next project, he started talking to Green about starting a paint company — an idea planted by the stories of a friend who had gained some experience in the industry. The pair ran with that idea and visited a paint factory in Wales in early 2020. Later, in Green’s father’s office, they drew a line down the middle of a whiteboard, writing which parts of the business they wanted to focus on. Abrahams took on brand, marketing and sales; Green opted for operations and product development.
“I like all that stuff and he hates all that stuff, and vice versa,” Abrahams said. “That was the deciding moment when we knew we could [do it].” With no family wealth to lean on, the pair raised £150,000 from 23 friends and family members, and Coat Paints was born.
The firm has its paint base made in the UK before it is taken to Coat’s facility in north London, where pigment is added. Abrahams admitted that “all paint, within reason, is made of the same ingredients”, largely water with some pigment and resin. As a brand, Coat needed to stand out in other ways.
“Internally, we say we don’t sell paint,” Abrahams said. “People don’t sit there wanting to hear about water and pigment; they want the room they’ve seen on Instagram.”
The Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh has collaborated with the companyCOAT Paints
Coat’s entire range is water-based, solvent-free and made to order, so there is less waste. From an initial 30 colours, the range has grown to 119, bolstered by collaborations with influencers such as the TV presenters Stacey Dooley and Laura Jackson, as well as Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh. Recent projects include fitting out the Margate House hotel in Kent.
The brand’s offerings include “Duvet Day” (a sandy beige) and “Smith & the Devil” (an earthy red). Abrahams remains his own best guinea pig; his box room has been repainted 15 times in five years. He has “The Coal Drop”, a charcoal grey, in his hall, while his daughter’s room is a mix of grey-green “Yard Party’ and “Cheap Soufflé”, a creamy yellow.
Coat Paints has also focused on service to help customers pick the right colour. It employs “colour experts” — specifically trained in undertones, overtones and colour scales — who guide homeowners through their decisions, while an AI-powered visualiser produces room previews.
After a successful first year, the company attracted venture capital funding, raising £1 million from Pembroke VCT and True Capital. It has since raised another £6 million, leaving Abrahams and Green with about 40 per cent of the shares, Pembroke another 40 per cent and other investors the rest. The duo have no plans for a further fundraising.
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The journey has not been without friction. In 2022, feeling pressure to demonstrate rapid scale to investors, Coat expanded into Europe with a manufacturing hub in Belgium. The project was shuttered within months. “It was wildly loss-making,” Abrahams admitted. “Shipping was expensive, labour was crazy … things we didn’t really know or think about.”
This misstep reinforced their initial focus. While Abrahams still enjoys “side quests” to keep the brand from becoming staid, he is committed to dominating the UK premium market. Guided by chairman Tony Stockil, Abrahams is aiming for £120 million in revenue within five years.
Stockil previously held the same role for recipe delivery firm Mindful Chef, which successfully sold itself to food and drink giant Nestlé in 2020. An exit at some point in the future might also be on the cards for Coat Paints — but for now Abrahams said he is absolutely “loving it”.
Ask me anything
The best way to start the day … Naturally, and unhurriedly, with enough headspace to plan. Frantic starts never make productive days for me.
The best advice I was given … “Mean something to someone, or nothing to everyone.” You don’t need to please everyone.
My best decision … Keeping key business functions, like performance marketing, in-house. Building those skills internally compounds over time.
My worst decision … Overspending on above-the-line brand marketing too early.
Best business tip … Do less, but do it better.