Today
Time to Evolve
In recent times the sister businesses (Linkup and DBNZ) have continued to evolve.
In the past five years, both businesses have continued to show strong growth, to the point where combined, Linkup and DBNZ have outgrown the facilities at Killarney Lane.
In 2021, Linkup acquired Cosmoe Paint & Wallpaper, a small decorative paints business, and added some high-quality people to their team, seeing this new part of the business add significant value to the company.
In January 2022, the Linkup BOP team expanded, opening a dedicated store in Gisborne, one of the original areas that Allan serviced when he started Linkup in 1982.
July 2022 saw Linkup celebrating 40 years of servicing New Zealand with as much pride and dedication as Allan on the first day.
A new dedicated facility has been developed near the Hamilton airport on Ossie James Drive which DBNZ moved into in August 2023. This allows Linkup to grow their operations in their Hamilton location more than doubling their floor space.
New technologies are also coming into play all the time at Linkup, with Damien (grandson of Allan and Joan) focusing a lot of his time on the Linkup website and marketing, and an “online” shop featuring literally thousands of products is beginning to gain positive momentum.
1982 to 1984
The Beginning - Hamilton
Linkup is a New Zealand based family owned and operated company that was founded by Allan & Joan Adamson and began trading on July 2nd, 1982.
1975-79
Allan had been a sales rep for Dulux Paints, initially selling decorative paints. An opportunity arose for him to sell automotive paint, which he took on, covering the Waikato region.
1979-82
In 1979 Allan was offered a job working for an Auckland company - Santano Paints (now RALI). The territory covered the Central North Island and included the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne regions.
1982
Allan and Joan recognised an opportunity to start their own business, and Allan was encouraged by his good friend Warren Hockley to "have a go".
After some months of planning, July 2nd came around, and Allan headed out on a journey that is now 40 years old.
The first day started with Allan venturing out to see customers in a new purpose-built Diahatsu truck which had a bulk thinners tank and plenty of shelves holding all the stock required for car painters and panel beaters. He serviced all these customers door to door throughout the Central North Island from south of the Bombay's, down to Turangi, from Raglan to Mt Maunganui, Thames - Coromandel and down to Gisborne, including Tauranga and Rotorua. All his customers knew exactly what day and time Allan would show up - it was like clockwork!
The first warehouse was a shared unit with good friend Warren Hockley in Keddell Street, Frankton.
During this time, Joan did all the administration for the business from home, also weighing up stockings and clean rags for the trade.
Allan mixed his own thinner and solvent blends in 44-gallon drums and decanted these into smaller pack sizes.
Linkup quickly outgrew the warehouse, so relocated to a larger building on the corner of Lake Road & Empire Street in Frankton. This was a game-changer for the business when the trade & retail shop first opened.
1984
Dean Adamson (son of Allan and Joan and the first employee) joined the business as a sales rep operating out of a Toyota van. It soon became evident that the van was too small, so Dean took over Allan's truck, and Allan moved to a larger truck. Around this time, we also employed a part-time admin person.
1986 to 1987
West Street
Allan and Joan purchased a section at 21 West Street, Frankton and built a new shop and warehouse for Linkup. We installed a 30,000-litre underground bulk thinners tank, which was filled up every 4 or 5 weeks by a Mobil or Shell tanker truck. That was a pretty big deal back in those days and meant that Allan no longer had to blend the thinners by hand.
1987
Antoinette Adamson (daughter of Allan and Joan, now Antoinette Peden) joined the administration team and also mixed paint for us.
1989
Tauranga Branch
It was decided that we should open a second branch located in Tauranga where we rented a warehouse in Birch Avenue. At the start of 1990 Dean (son of Allan and Joan) and Julie Adamson relocated to Tauranga to manage the branch, which took over the servicing of the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, and Gisborne regions. The Tauranga branch had four staff, plus Boss the Rottweiler.
1991
Allan and Joan purchased the building at 10 Barberry Street, Tauranga, and Linkup relocated to this site from Birch Avenue. The business flourished and grew rapidly.
1990s
The '90s
1992
Nigel Adamson (son of Allan and Joan) joined the Hamilton warehouse and shop team.
Brian Peden (son-in-law of Allan and Joan) also joined the team, initially in the warehouse, some part-time sales repping, and eventually settled into an administration role.
1993
Allan and Joan purchased the neighbouring house at 23 West Street, Hamilton and demolished it to add to the existing building as Linkup needed a larger shop.
1997
Allan and Joan purchased another neighbouring house at 25 West Street, Hamilton. Linkup needed to expand again as we were in the early stages of importing products from overseas.
1998
Allan formed a company called Refinish Imports which was set up as an importing business, based at 25 West Street. Nigel Adamson (son of Allan and Joan) managed this warehouse.
1999
Refinish Imports began importing DeBeer Refinish into the warehouse at 25 West Street. We also built our first “homemade” spray booth and training centre. Eventually, Refinish Imports was re-branded to DBANZ and then DBNZ Coatings. Originally DBNZ stood for “DeBeer New Zealand”.
early 2000s
A new Millennium
2000
Dean Adamson (son of Allan and Joan) moved back to Hamilton to manage the Linkup sales for Allan.
The Auckland branch was established in late 2000 in Penrose.
2001
Jason Barry moved from Tauranga to Hamilton to assist with sales management.
2003
Allan and Joan sold the West Street buildings in Hamilton and purchased the current head office site at 6 Killarney Lane, Frankton, where Linkup and DBNZ could work from the same premises.
2005
In October 2005, Jason & Kim Barry took up the opportunity to purchase and run Linkup Paints in Tauranga. Jason had worked for Linkup Paints in various roles for many years.
2010s
The Next Generation
2010
Chris Adamson (grandson of Allan and Joan) commenced with Linkup Hamilton working in the shop and warehouse.
2011
Allan and Joan retired from full-time work in May 2011, continuing on as directors.
Linkup Wellington was started after taking over Premier Paints in Lower Hutt.
2012
Antoinette Peden (nee Adamson, daughter of Allan and Joan) commenced in an administration role.
2015
Chris Adamson (grandson of Allan and Joan) returned to live in Tauranga and shifted to working at Linkup BOP, initially in procurement and later as a sales rep.
Damien Peden (grandson of Allan and Joan) commenced with Linkup Hamilton working initially in a logistics role and later moving on to a procurement role.
Linkup Christchurch was started after taking over from an existing distributor in Sockburn with the branch relocating to Hornby.
2017
End of an Era
Allan passed away on 8th August 2017 after a lengthy, courageous battle with lung cancer.
Allan passed with three children (plus spouses), 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
He left a great legacy in the companies he had been a part of and was remembered fondly by many of his loyal customers and suppliers.
Today
Time to Evolve
In recent times the sister businesses (Linkup and DBNZ) have continued to evolve.
In the past five years, both businesses have continued to show strong growth, to the point where combined, Linkup and DBNZ have outgrown the facilities at Killarney Lane.
In 2021, Linkup acquired Cosmoe Paint & Wallpaper, a small decorative paints business, and added some high-quality people to their team, seeing this new part of the business add significant value to the company.
In January 2022, the Linkup BOP team expanded, opening a dedicated store in Gisborne, one of the original areas that Allan serviced when he started Linkup in 1982.
July 2022 saw Linkup celebrating 40 years of servicing New Zealand with as much pride and dedication as Allan on the first day.
A new dedicated facility has been developed near the Hamilton airport on Ossie James Drive which DBNZ moved into in August 2023. This allows Linkup to grow their operations in their Hamilton location more than doubling their floor space.
New technologies are also coming into play all the time at Linkup, with Damien (grandson of Allan and Joan) focusing a lot of his time on the Linkup website and marketing, and an “online” shop featuring literally thousands of products is beginning to gain positive momentum.
1982 to 1984
The Beginning - Hamilton
Linkup is a New Zealand based family owned and operated company that was founded by Allan & Joan Adamson and began trading on July 2nd, 1982.
1975-79
Allan had been a sales rep for Dulux Paints, initially selling decorative paints. An opportunity arose for him to sell automotive paint, which he took on, covering the Waikato region.
1979-82
In 1979 Allan was offered a job working for an Auckland company - Santano Paints (now RALI). The territory covered the Central North Island and included the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne regions.
1982
Allan and Joan recognised an opportunity to start their own business, and Allan was encouraged by his good friend Warren Hockley to "have a go".
After some months of planning, July 2nd came around, and Allan headed out on a journey that is now 40 years old.
The first day started with Allan venturing out to see customers in a new purpose-built Diahatsu truck which had a bulk thinners tank and plenty of shelves holding all the stock required for car painters and panel beaters. He serviced all these customers door to door throughout the Central North Island from south of the Bombay's, down to Turangi, from Raglan to Mt Maunganui, Thames - Coromandel and down to Gisborne, including Tauranga and Rotorua. All his customers knew exactly what day and time Allan would show up - it was like clockwork!
The first warehouse was a shared unit with good friend Warren Hockley in Keddell Street, Frankton.
During this time, Joan did all the administration for the business from home, also weighing up stockings and clean rags for the trade.
Allan mixed his own thinner and solvent blends in 44-gallon drums and decanted these into smaller pack sizes.
Linkup quickly outgrew the warehouse, so relocated to a larger building on the corner of Lake Road & Empire Street in Frankton. This was a game-changer for the business when the trade & retail shop first opened.
1984
Dean Adamson (son of Allan and Joan and the first employee) joined the business as a sales rep operating out of a Toyota van. It soon became evident that the van was too small, so Dean took over Allan's truck, and Allan moved to a larger truck. Around this time, we also employed a part-time admin person.
