A tumbledown area around around an old workshop in Bucksburn, Aberdeen, has been spruced up by the new tenant.
The hard graft put in by oil and gas worker-turned businessman Colin Duncan has not gone unnoticed.
Several people have stopped him in the street to thank him for tackling the “eyesore” patch on Station Road.
Mr Duncan has been trading from the 4,000sq ft workshop since the start of June.
Product said to be ideal for ‘anything that lives life in rough conditions’
His company, CMD Coatings, is a licensed supplier of a particularly strong specialist coating called Bullet Liner.
Developed in the US, the product is described by the Missouri-based business ultimately behind it as a polyurethane protective spray for truck beds, boats, motorcycles or “anything that lives life in rough conditions”. It can be used on a variety of surfaces, and for commercial vehicle protection, offshore equipment, roofing and concrete works.
Mr Duncan is one of only two distributors in the UK.
Eggs, bricks and watermelons
He regularly shows off the product’s super-strong properties by hurling eggs coated in it against a wall, or bashing them hard with a cricket bat. The eggs, of course, stay intact.
The 38-year-old businessman’s other party tricks include battering a brick covered in Bullet Liner and trying to park a 4×4 on a coated watermelon to showcase the product’s super-strong capabilities.
CMD Coatings was incorporated just a few months ago and gained key industry accreditations within weeks. It has already taken on an employee, Jason Millar, and the size of the now renovated workshop offers lots of space for future business expansion.
In an uncanny twist of “now or never” fate, Mr Duncan signed papers for the workshop lease on the same day he was made redundant from his last oil and gas industry job.
“This is my first company, and I aim to grow and create local jobs with it,” he said.
He added: “We have made big efforts to clean the area up and make it more appealing to the locals as it was a bit of an eyesore.”
CMD Coatings on north-east tour
The new entrepreneur is getting out and about the north-east this summer to promote his business, with appearances at Turriff Show this weekend and the Aberdeen Performance Car Show at Castle Fraser the following weekend coming up soon.
He will have him an old agricultural digger that has been transformed by Bullet Liner.
“It’s back to new,” Mr Duncan said, adding: “This 1985 beauty has been brought back to life and is looking fantastic. It was fully restored in four days, with an incredible effort from Jason.”
Mr Duncan, who hails from Banff, said he found out about the product while working in Bahrain a few years ago. “It is amazing how we can use it restoring and reinforcing so many different items,” he added.
His new venture has benefitted from “fantastic” start-up support from Business Gateway and Elevator, he said.
