Benjamin Moore has been very busy these past couple of years and the outlook is this is going to continue for the foreseeable future. They have recently updated the primers and a number of different paint lines. I believe this is the result of many things but it has coincided with the latest CEO Dan Calkins involvement. It causes some pain in the moment now but repositioning and realigning the products should make things better for the future.

Visibly, we are seeing label changes and products are updated. As it was explained to me, Ben Moore is partly doing this to fulfill compliance to the MPI standards. These are a set of agreed upon performance and appearance standards for all sorts of paints and coatings. This should put Moore’s products in a competitive equivalence bracket for inclusion on master specifications. Architects and designers want to allow builders and contractors to use what is best suited for the region that they are working in and so want to specify paints that provide similar results. Benjamin Moore’s exclusive sheens didn’t fit nicely within the MPI structures and sometimes didn’t match other BM paints with the same nomenclature. Now eggshell finishes should appear to have the same sheen across all products labeled eggshell.

Another reason I think we are seeing all these changes has to do with updates in available raw materials. Raw material manufacturer’s come out with improvements all the time. As ingredients are replaced, chemists have to come up with adjustments to their formulas as well.  Ben Moore is always looking to lead the industry in quality and satisfaction  achieve better performance for working properties and durability; if you’re not improving you’re going backwards. Their updated technology necessary for creating Urethane Modified Acrylic paints such as COROTECH COMMAND and the INSL-X CABINET COAT shows that they are striving for useful performance goals.

Recent improvements including Exterior Aura, interior “ben”, UltraSpec and the various primers are only part of the changes. CORONADO PAINTS are also getting updated with the move from RUST SCAT acrylic formulas to the new MULTAPPLY gloss and semi-gloss. This update, if nothing else, allows tinting these products with Ben Moore’s proprietary waterborne GENNEX tint system on computerized dispenser systems. This provides for the move away from VOC solvent tint systems and should give greater color accuracy and consistency.