ADN SPRING 2022 WEB

Today’s P&S Detail Products leadership team (from left) Ian Belcher, Sydni Brae Gwinn, Prentice St. Clair, Renny Doyle, Dave
Phillips, Bob Phillips, Keith Duplessie, Kyle Clark, and Chris Woolman at the 2021 McCall Motorworks Revival.
Education is one of P&S’s primary tenets. Several training events per
month are conducted in the Detail Training Studio in Hayward, CA.
which allowed Bob and Dave to set up the
facility for success from the ground up.
Dave oversaw most of the work, with the
help of a professional warehouse designer
and a retired fire captain. In the case of
a chemical manufacturing company, there
are special design considerations such as
the creation of a “flammable room”, an
“acid room”, and the installation of underground
storage tanks for bulk raw materials.
Dave also wanted to make sure that
the final layout would maximize efficient
movement within the warehouse.
At this point the company boasted 30
distributors across the United States, moving
about 100 different products. Leading
products at that time included Buff-Tone,
Velocity Glaze, and Multi-Dressing. The
company settled well into the new facility
and Dave had his wish of direct connection
with suppliers and control of formulas
and production. He was also able to continue
developing new products that solved
the workaday problems for the detailer.
During the 1990s, P&S established its
commitment to education, bringing in experienced
detailer Joe Newhoff to run the
company’s in-house training programs for
distributors and end-users alike. This led
to the creation of The Detail Studio, and
Mark Spindler took over training facilities
for a number of years.
In 1997, Bob became President of the
company. Bill was still around but was
able to play a more relaxed role. Bill’s wife
Diane, who he married in 1955, also continued
to work as the company bookkeeper,
a duty which she had performed since
day one. Bill retired completely in the early
2000s, and Bob became President and
Chief Executive Officer. Dave became
the Vice President of Operations. Bill
passed in 2015 and was inducted into the
founding class of the International Detailing
Association’s Hall of Fame in 2020.
The Phillips brothers carry on his legacy
with many of the same guiding principles
that helped Bill succeed.
■ INDUSTRY
COMMITMENT AT ITS BEST
In April of 2008, Bob describes a
fateful incoming call that would have a
long-lasting impact on the global detailing
industry. “P&S has always been involved
in trade associations one way or another,
so when Bud Abraham contacted me to
join a group of industry suppliers providing
seed money for the establishment of
a trade association for detailers, it was a
‘no-brainer’.” P&S Sales thus became one
of the founding members of the International
Detailing Association (IDA).
Bob spent countless hours and resources
in support of the IDA in its early years.
He served on the Board of Directors in
2011 and joined the prestigious Founder’s
Club in 2016. He has also served on several
IDA Committees through the years.
When asked about the importance of
the IDA, Bob gushes, “This is an extremely
important organization that looks out
for our industry. It brings detailers together.
It provides a platform for us to gather,
and every time we get together, great
things happen.”
A perfect example of that is a fateful
run-in with detailer Renny Doyle, CD-SV,
RIT, who Bob and Dave met during the
IDA’s educational sessions at the 2013 Western
Carwash Association annual convention
in San Diego. Since the brothers have
always understood the importance of continuing
education to keep up with trends in
the detailing industry, they decided to attend
Renny Doyle’s Detailing Success week-long
detail training in early 2014.
“The more contact we had, the more
obvious it was that we shared a lot of the
same philosophy and passion for the detail
industry,” Bob recalls, “and the three of us
could see a benefit to an affiliation that took
advantage of the fame and knowledge of
Renny and the product development capability
of P&S.” Renny and the Phillips
brothers worked together to develop a new
line of detail chemicals called “Renny Doyle
Double Black”, which launched in 2016.
A few years later, they continued William
Phillips’ early idea of creating growth
opportunities for others by launching the
Double Black Storefront concept, which
allowed detail operators to sell products
to end-users without becoming full-on
distributors, and without interfering with
P&S distributor operations in the same
market. The Double Black line of detail
chemicals continues to be extremely popular
amongst detailing professionals and
enthusiasts alike.
Bob shares, “Renny and I still shake
our heads at the unbelievable growth that
has happened. Neither of us had any idea
back in 2016 that the Double Black concept
would be this successful.” He continues,
“Double Black happened as a direct
result of the existence of the IDA.” P&S
actually doubled its warehouse space over
the last couple of years, during a pandemic!
P&S’s commitment to the detailing industry
has been acknowledged with multiple
awards, including:
• IDA Outstanding Service Award.
• Mobile Tech Expo Detailing
Supplier of the Year.
• Mobile Tech Expo Detailing
Person of the Year (Bob); and,
• IDA Supplier of the Year.
■ P&S NOW AND
IN THE FUTURE
P&S currently boasts 200 distributors
in 20 countries, with more coming
on each year. The company manufactures
over 200 products and continues to
develop new products to meet the needs
and simplify the detailing work for professionals
and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. “We
continue to benefit from our membership
in the IDA, and are able to follow the wave
of the detailing industry’s growth across the
globe,” adds Bob. Bill’s early vision — as reflected
in the original logo — of P&S being
a global company has been realized.
8 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | VOL. 7, NO. 5 • SPRING 2022