Surface World October 2019 Surface World October 2019 | Page 78

PRODUCTS & PROCESSES
The Wheel Specialist and Gema go pro
The Wheel Specialist
began life as a franchise in
2007 but has roots going
back to 1955 under the
company Lap-Tab Ltd, who
provided metal fi nishes
and powder coating
services to many industries
including the automotive
market. As the demand
for wheel refurbishment
services grew, and more
vehicles were supplied with
alloy wheels, it became
apparent that there was
a need to be able to
provide high quality full
alloy wheel refurbishment
services beyond the site
in Birmingham, and so
what followed was 2 years
of planning and research
which led to the decision
to franchise and set up The
Wheel Specialist in 2007.
Fast-forward to 2019 and there is a network
of 27 established branches of The Wheel
Specialist across the UK, with more to
come throughout 2020 and beyond.
With a proven business model, vast market,
and a talent pool of over 180 years
combined experience, they offer a fantastic
opportunity for budding entrepreneurs
and aspiring business owners alike.
As part of their continued development
and business investment, The Wheel
Specialist have partnered with Gema to
supply powder coating equipment since
May 2012. This was following from a
previous supplier and Gema competitor
who had a similar product, or so it seemed,
but following trials at a couple of their sites,
it soon became apparent that this alternative
was not delivering to expectations and
76
a top quality
consistent finish
that is expected
by our customers,
we also saw
significant powder
savings when
compared to
the competitor
alternative.
All of this, coupled
with the excellent
back-up support
from Gema that
we have become
accustomed, made
it a conclusive
choice to go with
this latest generation
of Gema equipment as part of our
franchise package. All new franchises
will be supplied with the OptiFlex Pro
units and we are working closely with
the Gema network to upgrade existing
franchises up and down the country to
ensure we all benefit from the benefits
we saw during the trials.”
requirements for The Wheel Specialist.
The demonstration unit provided by Gema
gave an easier application and had greater
functionality for both control and settings
options and following extensive trials it was
deemed as being a far superior product
and subsequently Gema became the
franchisors preferred supplier of choice.
Following the launch of the latest Gema
OptiFlex Pro manual unit another trial was
carried out by the group, this time with
the Gema Optiflex Pro vs. another major
manufacturer’s latest powder coating gun.
And once again, the Gema product stood
out above the competition.
Andy Thompson, Technical Director at
The Wheel Specialist commented “Once
again, Gema have won hands down.
Our franchisees who took part in the trials
agreed that the application was still far better
than any of the alternative equipment we
have tested. The OptiFlex Pro has a range
of new features including a new powder
injector, an upgraded gun that is even more
robust than the previous generation and the
Gema e-App, these features combine to give
OCTOBER 2019
Leon Hogg, Business Manager Gema
UK, has been working alongside
The Wheel Specialist since 2012:
“I remember the first OptiFlex manual
unit that was supplied for test to TWS in
2012, this was put through its paces by the
TWS team who, with some of the industries
most experienced sprayers, gave the unit
a thorough test and evaluation next to our
competitor’s latest offering at that time.
It was great to see the delight in their faces
when they started to work with the unit as
they were instantly achieving excellent results.
We always look to TWS to benchmark
our products in real life scenarios against
alternative products, following the latest
rounds of testing we are delighted to once
again come out on top and we are looking
forward to supplying our latest generation
OptiFlex Pro machines to their network as
they grow in the coming years.”
For more information on the
products, services and franchise
opportunities available from
The Wheel Specialist please
visit www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk
To learn more about the range of
Gema OptiFlex Pro machines please
visit www.gemapowdercoating.com
twitter: @surfaceworldmag