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Coat\u2019s colours feature quirky names such as Duvet Day and The Coal DropCOAT Paints<\/p>\nTo 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. \u201cNo one could do that for us, so we did it ourselves,\u201d said Abrahams, 37.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Last year they sold \u00a312.9 million worth of made-to-order paint pots at about \u00a332 a litre, generating a profit \u2014 measured as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) \u2014 of \u00a3378,000. This year revenues are expected to hit \u00a320 million, with expanding profits.<\/p>\n
Coat\u2019s colours feature quirky names such as Duvet Day and The Coal DropCOAT Paints<\/p>\n
Coal dust rather than paint is in Abrahams\u2019 blood. He grew up in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, where his father\u2019s side of the family had historically been miners. His mother was a midwife and he has three younger sisters. <\/p>\n
At his local state secondary he was \u201cthe clever one at quite a rough school\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
He then joined Carwow<\/a>, the online vehicle marketplace, after it had a run-in with BMW. \u201cI thought, \u2018Someone doesn\u2019t like what [Carwow] is doing, which means it\u2019s interesting.\u2019 So I reached out to the founder,\u201d Abrahams recalled. He was given a job with no title and a \u201cblank sheet of paper\u201d to work on product expansion. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Abrahams\u2019 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 \u201clittle bit naive\u201d, he admitted.<\/p>\n Looking for his next project, he started talking to Green about starting a paint company \u2014 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\u2019s father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI like all that stuff and he hates all that stuff, and vice versa,\u201d Abrahams said. \u201cThat was the deciding moment when we knew we could [do it].\u201d With no family wealth to lean on, the pair raised \u00a3150,000 from 23 friends and family members, and Coat Paints<\/a> was born. <\/p>\n The firm has its paint base made in the UK before it is taken to Coat\u2019s facility in north London, where pigment is added. Abrahams admitted that \u201call paint, within reason, is made of the same ingredients\u201d, largely water with some pigment and resin. As a brand, Coat needed to stand out in other ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInternally, we say we don\u2019t sell paint,\u201d Abrahams said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t sit there wanting to hear about water and pigment; they want the room they\u2019ve seen on Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Millie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/40a921ec-1384-4bcb-8cfb-2523f4bda582.jpg\")
The Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh has collaborated with the companyCOAT Paints<\/p>\n