Behind the scenes at Little Greene
Every tin of Little Greene paint has been made, poured and packaged in our own small paint factory in North Wales. We’re proud to manufacture ecofriendly paints in a sustainable way, without compromising their unrivalled quality and performance.
Whether it’s our high-quality ingredients or the recycled metal used to make our paint cans, we consciously make decisions that will minimise our ecological impact.
Read our Q&A with our Operations Director, Ben Mottershead, as he shares more about the process of manufacturing Little Greene paints…
Where are Little Greene paints made, and who makes them?
“We are proud to make Little Greene paints in our own factory, nestled in the foothills of Mount Snowdon in North Wales. We have a dedicated team of craftspeople who manufacture 3 million litres of Little Greene paint each year.”
What are the benefits of making our own paints?
“One of the main benefits is quality control. By making our own paints, we control all the factors that determine the final product. We have a constant drive for high standards, and our team is continuously finding ways to produce the best paints possible for our customers. This means we are the ones who decide how durable and how opaque our paints should be. But most importantly, it means we have complete control over the accuracy of our colours.”
Complete colour accuracy
“You can see this in practice in the way we manufacture our Hi-White paint base. This base is the starting point for some of our most-loved colours, including Slaked Lime, French Grey and Masquerade.
Across the industry, this base can have quite a large parameter variability, which can affect the accuracy of the colour once pigment is added. But we’ve been able to hone this variability, ensuring there is hardly any room for error in the tinting process. The final paint shade is extremely accurate, so our customers can have complete confidence in Little Greene colour.”
Innovative paint formulations
“Another key benefit of manufacturing our own paints is technical advancement. Our team is at the forefront of what is coming next in the paint industry – be it new resins or other innovations that will improve our products. This gives us the opportunity to really be creative, constantly evolving our products to improve the customer experience – something which we demonstrated in the latest upgrade to our Intelligent Paints range.”
Intelligent Paints
“These paints are all now self-priming, and can be used to paint walls, metals and woodwork, as well as uPVC, glass, tiles or Melamine, with minimal preparation needed. Little Greene’s Intelligent Paints are now some of the most versatile paints on the market, simplifying the decorating process and giving you the chance to really think creatively about the way you use colour in your home.
It’s true that many of our customers choose Little Greene for the beautiful colour range, but they remain lifelong enthusiasts due to the excellent technical performance of our paints.”
What ingredients give our paints their excellent opacity and coverage?
“Titanium Dioxide is the ingredient that determines the opacity of paints. Our recipes contain a high percentage of TiO2, which is a key reason why Little Greene paints are renowned for their unrivalled coverage and opacity.
Reducing the TiO2 content by a small amount would bring down the manufacturing cost considerably, but we also know that it would noticeably affect the appearance and performance of our paints.
At Little Greene, we’re proud to say that the only changes we make to our paint formulas are ones that will improve the performance of our paints. This is something that sets us apart from other brands in the industry. As an independent family business, we have the flexibility to make those decisions that visibly improve the technical performance of our paints.”
Can you share an overview of the manufacturing process?
Three steps to making Little Greene paint
“Manufacturing paint is a three-step process. First is dispersion – we mix water with Titanium Dioxide, applying so much speed and force to break up the TiO2 particles.
At this point, the paint has opacity, but it won’t stick to anything. So, the second step is adding resin or binder – called the “let down” process. The resin provides the paint’s durability, toughness and washability. It’s the innovative resin within our Intelligent Paints that means these finishes will adhere to almost any household surface.
The final step is incorporating additives, which determine the thickness of the paint, and the way it feels under the brush or roller. The additives we use mean Little Greene paint feels quite thick and luxurious, so decorating is a truly enjoyable process.”
Striving for sustainability
“At every step, we’re using the highest quality raw ingredients, making decisions that ensure our paints cover better, last longer and produce less waste than others in the industry.
For example, last year we announced we’d upgraded our signature range of Intelligent Paints with new Intelligent Grip™ technology. Crucially, this means no separate primer is needed for most projects.
Even for painting things like metal radiators, wooden skirting boards or kitchen cabinetry, you can do it all from one tin. By creating a better, more versatile product, it means less packaging is required, there’s less leftover paint, and it’s a far more sustainable manufacturing and decorating process all round.”
How do we make our Re:mix collection of upcycled paints, and what is the environmental impact?
“By upcycling our leftover paints through Re:mix, we can save on average 60,000 litres of product per year. This is an amazing statistic to achieve, but what we’re really aiming to do through Re:mix is think proactively about the future of our industry.
Currently, there’s no national scheme for paint recycling in the UK, which means that approximately 1 million litres of paint is left on landfill or incinerated every year – all of it containing precious raw materials that the world environment really can’t afford to lose.”
Making our Re:mix paints
“The industry has made lots of advancements to minimise environmental impact when it comes to manufacturing paint, but we’ve not seen much progress to tackle the issue of waste paints. So, through Re:mix, we’re taking our leftover, waste paints and trying to reverse this process.
At the moment, creating our Re:mix paint is an extremely long, manual and technical process. It involves testing individuals paint cans, filtering different colours and combining pre-tinted paints to create the upcycled paint in specific Little Greene shades.
However, what we’re really trying to do is take the first step towards a brighter future for the paint industry. We’re trying to understand the process involved in recycling paint, closing the final gap towards a truly sustainable, ecologically minded paint industry.”
