The writing’s NOT on the wall for coating company

A Doncaster company with a product originally designed to banish graffiti is cleaning up on exports with its range of cleaning solutions.

Urban Hygiene Ltd supplies permanent anti-graffiti coating to local authorities throughout Britain and has gone on to develop and create the ‘easy-on' range of protective surface coatings and specialist cleaning products.

The brand was developed for use in the education, health, housing and local authority sectors and, with the help of an export strategy developed with the South Yorkshire International Trade Centre (SYITC), Urban Hygiene's coatings are now achieving superb results beyond Britain in Belgium.

Managing director Roy Johnson said: “easy-on is a clear coating that has lots of unique properties. Marker pens and spray paint just wipe off and you can clean the surface repeatedly without any visible degradation or fading.

“We believe there is no other product like ours in the world – easy-on lasts up to 20 years and even ‘superbugs’ like MRSA do not grow on the clear surface so we are looking to move more into the healthcare market as a result.

“The SYITC initially helped us through its Passport to Export scheme where we learned about the paperwork and documentation involved in exporting.

“The centre also helped us attend an exhibition in Germany a few years ago which was a good learning curve and really made us aware of the potential opportunities out there – and we have been working hand in hand with the SYITC ever since.

“We later moved onto the Targeted Export Support Scheme (TESS) and picked Belgium as our first major market as it is convenient to get to, we can export via land, they deal in Euros and we hope it will prove a useful stepping stone to neighbouring markets like France, Germany and The Netherlands.  

“The SYITC assisted with market research and also finding a suitable partner who helps identify distributors and makes contacts on our behalf.”

It has been full steam ahead ever since, with easy-on spreading its protective coating from trains to subways in Belgium … 

“We are working with the Belgian rail industry and that has led to a locomotive in Antwerp getting the easy-on treatment,” said Roy.

“We are also involved in a large project with the city council in Brussels who are constructing lots of new subways and all of these will be painted with our product.

“It would have been difficult to get to Belgium without the SYITC’s help as it would have been too expensive for a small company.

“But it is not just the funding that has helped; the advice and guidance from our advisor Duncan has also been great.”

International trade advisor Duncan Slater said: “Urban Hygiene has enjoyed several dramatic years of growth and thanks to a proactive and considered export strategy their hard work is paying off for them in new markets.”

The South Yorkshire International Trade Centre (SYITC) is supported by a three year £7.41million funding package issued jointly by Yorkshire Forward, the European Regional Development Fund and UK Trade & Investment under contract with Business Link South Yorkshire. The centre provides a range of international trade related services including expert advice, market information, research and grant support.