About Movac

Movac Group Limited are a family owned firm curently in it's third generation. We are specialists in paint distribution to the Automotive Refinish trade and Industrial market.

Movac started life in 1951 when William Smith started selling household paint from the family glazing business. In the early days we were a decorative paint outlet, but following a conversation with a friend of the family when he was unable to get some paint for his car, things changed.

In just a short while we became agents for Valentine's Paints and so began our journey into the car refinish market. In those days we stocked paint ready mixed on the shelf. It was sold in multiples of pints. The core product of the day for cars was Cellulose.

By 1955 a company called Essex Cellulose & Paint Supplies (1955)Ltd, in London Road, Southend on Sea, Essex had been formed

In response to the market's needs we ventured into delivering our products to our customers, with just the one van. This was fairly revolutionary in the fifties...funny how things change!

Valentine's paints also sold wood finish product too, and so we started venturing into the Industrial Wood Finish market. We found ourselves selling Shellacs, Sanding sealers, and cellulose lacquers for the wood finish market.

Over the years, we have aligned ourselves with numerous strategic partners to ensure we continue to offer the best products and services to our customers. Our success in achieving this saw us grow in sales and aquire further premises and by 1981 we had become Movac Group Limited.

We gradually expanded our wood finish range and grew the business to the extent that we took the decision to create a dedicated Industrial Division in 1985 to cope with the specialised demands.

Movac joined forces with Hickson's Coatings Ltd, (now Arch Coatings Limited) to become their first UK paint distributor. We are proud to be one of their largest distributors in the UK.

Meanwhile during the late 80's in the Vehicle refinish market 2Pack Isocyanate cured paints were in vogue. We had aligned ourselves with ICI Autocolor (Now Nexa Autocolor, part of PPG industries) this strong relationship endures to this day.

In 1998 we aquired Willow Wholesale of Cambridge, a well respected and successful organisation.

We now have 5 depots all based in the East of England, the head office being at ipswich in Suffolk. With over 85 staff, 28 delivery people, and 16 field based sales staff, Movac are East Anglia's Premier Distributor with a turnover in excess of £10 Million.