Airless Spray Plaster is something that Beissier have been producing and developing for many years now. Bagar G is probably the one that we in the residential market would be most familiar with so we went to Bessier’s factory in la chapelle-La-Reine France to find out more about the company, the set up and their products.
There are a few supplies of plaster in the UK such as Beissier, Knauf, British Gypsum, Toupret with lots more entering the uk market as spray plastering becomes more popular. Europe and the USA have been using sprayable plasters for many year, it may be to do with our building systems and weather but Airless Spray Plaster has not been more readily available until the last few years. We have been using the Airless Spray Plasters for a while now including Bagar G & Bagar J at the Academy and also their Prestonett interior fillers at PaintTech Decorators.
Aaron Barbeau the UK sales manager for Beissier kindly arranged a 2 day tour of the factory including training on their products and a walk around the facility they have there which produces some of their Sto, Beissier & Prestonette products.
We met Aaron at Gatwick Airport on the Thursday morning early and flew to Orly in Paris where we met with Pete & Tracey from the Preston Academy, Damien & Niamh from the Ireland Academy plus Steve who teach the airless spray plaster courses at the Edenbridge Academy and his Partner Adele. We made our way straight to the Beissier Factory where Thomas their President and Alexa who heads their marketing team were waiting for us.
After some lunch in the boardroom and some chatting with Thomas about PaintTech Training Academy and our Airless Spray Plaster training we were invited into the factory itself. The walk around of the Factory was brilliant and really informative, we learnt about the production of a few different products from core materials down to the bagging process and its amazing to see how many products start off with the same basic core materials with different additives to produce the different spray plasters.
It’s great to learn about their products and get an incite into how the products are produced, packaged and distributed. There is so much chemistry in how the materials are combined and a small difference in one additive can make a huge difference in how the product performs which is why products are produced in batches and each of these batches are tagged and logged so that Beissier can go back to a batch if there is an issue and they can test to see if something and what went wrong in production.
We were able to do some live filming during the tour and take pictures too which was fantastic. All they asked was that we didn’t film or photograph the computers showing the composition and quantities of each material which was fair enough 🙂
After the factory tour we headed to their training facility where we were met by Jeremy & Raphael their technicians. They ran through a few of their Airless Spray Plaster products including Bagar Airless G, Bagar Bagmax & Bagar Airless J showing us how to spray them, which machines they use with each of them and the tools they recommend. Beissier test all their products using a variety of machines to make sure that they will spray in the best way possible without any issues with machine or product.
They have other machines but the ones we got to play with were the Graco Mark V, Graco Mark VII and the Wagner HC940. The technicians, although they didn’t speak much english were very patient with us and with the help of Alexa and hand gestures were able to get their point across easily. This gave us a great insight into the range of products, the differences in them and what would work the best in the UK environment.
We even got to work with the Festool Planex and they showed the best way to sand the product and which grit sandpapers to use. By using this You could see the strength of each Airless Spray Plaster and how easy each of them sanded. The Friday was also spent in the training facility where we ran through the larger machines and thicker more textured plasters which was again great to see – not products that are generally used in the UK market but good to see the what is trending in other countries.
We asked a lot of questions and they didn’t hold anything back. The team at Beissier were really friendly, helpful and its great to be able to see how a company such as this with around 90 members of staff in France can still feel like a family business with everyone working together.
We were really well looked after during the trip with an amazing dinner on the Thursday evening at a local restaurant close by and lunch on friday in an lovely cafe with the most amazing cakes. We decided to spend a few extra days in Paris with the PaintTech Team and did some sightseeing to boot.
We are lucky to have our Logo on the UK brochures showing PaintTech as a recommended Training Provider for Beissier. We will be organising some awareness days at each of the Academies running through the range of Beissier Products, the benefits of them in the residential market and how best to spray them.
We are also working on training packages for larger companies wanting to use the products with training at the Academy, follow up support including on site visits as well.
Have a look at a blog written by Airless Discounter that talks more about which sprayer to use when spraying airless spray plaster.
Beissier has been around for longer than we ever realised! M Hector Beissier purchased the company back in 1871 when the name was changed to Beissier. It started life as a gelatine manufacturer and in 1924 when it was purchased by The Sion family the company developed a strong foothold in the glue, putty and paint sector.
The company expanded by joining with others along the way and in 2002 joined Sto who are well known in the market for their renders and external wall insulation. Beissier putties are present in the main markets of the European Union and now spread farther into India, South America, the Carribbean and African countries which is an amazing achievement. Beissier say that this has enabled them to consolidate themselves as the second main putty supplier in Europe!
If you want to find out more about how Airless Spray Plaster works and whether it is something worth adding to your business then have a look at the course by clicking the button below.
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