Bermuda uses the most paint per person per square mile in the world according to Pembroke Paint manager John Swift, and technology is making a big splash in the industry.

As the local supplier for ICI (Glidden) Paints, Pembroke Paint yesterday started using the most sophisticated paint ordering and dispensing system on the planet.

The new system wirelessly links four desktops to the computer controlled “accutinter” which then mixes the paint.

Although the accutinter has been used for several years, it was previously only linked to one computer creating bottlenecks at peak times when contractors were lined up wanting paint for jobs. The new system allows several users to input paint orders which then join a queuing system and are mixed one after the other. The company's spectrometer, which can match almost any colour, is also linked to the new system. So if a customer wants pink bathroom paint to match their favourite pink slippers, this can be done almost instantaneously.

Not only has matching colours never been easier, but customers records can now be accessed instantly, and paint mixed to match a batch that may have been used 20 years ago.

The key to responding to customer demands said Mr. Swift was to keep records of the paint customers have ordered.

On Monday IT focus manager for ICI Tom McCardle arrived to install the new equipment and instruct staff. Mr. McCardle said Bermuda was chosen as the site for the new technology as Pembroke Paint sells huge volumes of their product and the local company was the first to recognise the need for something different to suit the businesses needs.

When Mr. Swift started in the business, records of customer's orders were kept on index cards and mixing was done with manual dispensers.

Computers are now used in almost every area of the business including accounts, ordering from overseas, customer databases and of course matching and mixing paint. Customers will be glad to hear however, that the new technology will not mean customers have to pay more.

Mr. Swift said of the new technology versus the old: “I couldn't go back and I don't want to. This is the ideal way of using a computer.”