Interesting article Window Film Magazine’s interview of Bill Stewart, former National Sales Manager of Film Technologies International (FTI) and now the National Sales Manager of Solamatrix Inc. What’s the difference? Same building, same office, (same parking spot?), and same equipment… he’s still capt bill over on Tintdude.com and he still sells film branded as Sun-Gard® and Glass-Gard®. Aside from this, everything else seems to be totally different according to the interview.
Shortly after FTI went out of business its assets and intellectual property were bought by a company called Novomatrix. The result is a totally new company called Solamatrix Inc. No, it is not the new FTI. FTI is done, gone, kaput, nada, finito, it is out of existence. The ownership is completely different and according to Bill, so are the dynamics of the company.
Some of the changes that I notice is the access to Solamatrix partners and their resources. The first signs of this is an ad for IQ window film which is a branded IR film manufactured by Southwall Technologies and by the looks of the ad, a film that will probably be converted and distributed by Solamatrix Inc. According to Stewart FTI was never in the financial position to develop such technologically complex films as a result, they could only offer old technology films. Another noteworthy change is they are now in a position to improve the Sun Gard brand which in my opinion was one of the worst looking films out there. In the interview Bill explains why this was so and it seems to make a lot more sense to me than the explanation in the last FTI interview with Don Wheeler the former ceo. Despite all of the excuses, the two known facts are that they have machinery that is capable of making great films and now they have access to people who have a history of making great films. Lastly, was Bill’s view of the whole warranty issue. It is a very touchy subject so I am going to… avoid it. Read the article for yourself and see what Bill has to say about it.
The changes have been massive and undoubtedly have altered people’s livelihoods. Change is a constant and many will say change is good. We will have just to wait and see if Solamatrix can deliver the goods and what kind of change they will bring to our industry… no pressure Bill.
-vc
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