Letter from the PDA CEO

Dear Members,

Throughout 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has continued to dominate our lives to a greater or lesser extent. However, despite that we have been busier than ever at the PDA, and you will shortly receive your Membership renewal letter. We sincerely hope that you will re-join and continue to reap the benefits of being a Member of our Association. We do want to continue to support you fully in coming year. This year, despite the extra administration work and the challenges of pandemic restrictions, we we able to host the Premier Trophy Awards, four National Apprentice competitions and our Networking event at the Hilton Hotel in Liverpool. These have all been well attended and so many people came to tell me how good it was to go to events in person once again. Hot on the heels of the Liverpool event, we also had a stand at the National Painting and Decorating Show held at the Coventry Building Society Arena. It was lovely to meet so many of you and of course to see our Associate Partners. It was a great couple of days where we saw both new Members and Associate Partners joining us.

In March we launched our new website, which has been well received by Members and Associates alike, with Member profile pages now much easier to navigate and update. Pleasingly, the search ranking for the Association has improved greatly with its position now appearing on the first page of search engines when the words “Find a Painter & Decorator” are used. We are almost ready to launch our revised version of the Health & Safety in Painting & Decorating Handbook. This will be available to all Members as a progressive web app which will work on most electronic devices. In creating an electronic version of the guide, its content can be updated regularly thus ensuring that it is always up to date.

We have some exciting new projects lined up for the future, foremost being our Paint Green initiative. With environmental issues becoming such an important aspect of many industries, Paint Green aims to encourage PDA Members to build sustainability principles into their daily working lives, encourage uptake of paint recycling and reduce waste. More details will be released next year. As it is the end of the year, I would like to thank my team at headquarters and our Membership advisor Paul for all their work this year. Additionally, thanks go to Shepherd PR, Catherine Saint Publicity, and Empathic Visions who work tirelessly on The Decorator magazine, marketing, social media, and our website. Finally, I would like to thank the PDA Management Board for their continued support and the wider decorating community for showing such resilience. We’ve all been through a lot together and should be proud of the way everyone has sustained our great industry. None of us know what challenges lay ahead in 2022, but the PDA is in great shape going forward, and I am confident that there are real grounds for optimism for our industry and the Association alike. In working together, we can and will succeed in meeting the challenges.

We look forward to helping promote your business, and in liaising with our Associate partners who represent such a diverse range of products and services within the sector. I wish you all continued success in your business. Please stay as safe and as healthy as you can. Have great a Christmas and New Year and I look forward to speaking with you during 2022.

Yours Sincerely

Neil Ogilvie

Chief Executive neil@paintingdecoratingassociation.co.uk