Wilson’s The Paint Store celebrates 40 years

THIS BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON

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The Wilsons know paint. Three generations of the family have been involved in their store for the past 40 years.

It all started in 1976 when Doug Wilson, then a sales rep for a paint company, drove through Huntsville and saw a building for lease. “It was the best job I could have had from an employment point of view but I always wanted to be in business for myself,” says Doug. “I went home – we were living in Barrie at the time – and said to Marian, ‘I found a place in Huntsville to open a business’. And she said, ‘where’s Huntsville?’”

They leased the store – at 5 Cann Street where Moose Delaney’s is now – and opened on May 21, 1976. Marian and an employee ran the business for three years, bringing it to the point where Doug could leave his job in 1979. After 10 years in that location, they purchased the building on the corner, where So Many Looks is now, and remained there until building their current location in Commerce Park in 2005. Darryl took over the business that year after spending many years running a painting business – he ran both until 2012.

Those early years in a small town where they didn’t know anyone were hard, but they persisted and are now solidly embedded in the community. Doug and Marian belong to the Dorset Lions Club, and the family supports the Huntsville Hospital, Hospice Huntsville, Paddle for Fairvern, and many, many small groups and charities.

It’s not just the three generations of Wilsons that you’ll find in the store – Doug and Marian, Darryl and his wife Cheryl, and their son Chris; they see third generations of many of their early customers now coming in.

Their tag line sums up why they’ve been so successful – ‘We’re a paint store, not a paint department’. “We are always updating our skills as things change,” says Darryl. Their shortest term employee has worked in the store for seven years.

Even Chris, who now works at the store full-time, has been there a long time – he started as a stock boy, then worked weekends helping customers. People often overlooked him because of his young age, but he was usually the most knowledgeable person in the store because he’d been the one to do the most recent courses. “He had a hard time with it so he moved to painting,” says Darryl, which further increased his knowledge. He’s back now and can be found on the floor advising customers on the products that will meet their needs – or not. “We sell the right product today so they don’t have problems tomorrow,” says Darryl. “And we quite often send people out the door without paint – ‘you don’t want to paint that’.”

The store has always been a Benjamin Moore dealer, but also sells Para, Sikkens and Sansin products to the unique Muskoka market. “We sell a lot of stain, it’s a unique market,” says Doug.

If you’re over in Commerce Park, stop in and wish the Wilsons a happy 40 years. Here’s to many more.