Dulux has achieved one thing with this attitude: When I paint anything in future, I'll use a different manufacturer's product.

The website states "Professional paints have a higher spreading rate than retail - this saves money" - if it covers an extra 10 sq m at three times the price, then surely this could be reported to trading standards as it's a complete lie. We've found the same with interior paint although it was only twice the price for us (£30 5l instead of £16). Great video, keep doing what you're doing!

I work in the print trade and we produce catalogues for what is a chain of builder merchants, all under different names spread across the UK. They are posing as a regional builders merchant, but they are a national company with a name change, depending on the location. The inventory of the books is identical, the pictures and layout are identical, but the prices vary depending on region, those in the South pay more than those in the North. Most interestingly they have what they call a national book, where you phone to place an order and they deliver. The prices are put up by 20% over London prices, but the cover of the book changes and says on the front that "If you have a trade account, we will pay your VAT" and bingo the price drop back down to retail prices and the tradesman thinks he has a good deal and in fact he paid top retail price.

Loved this video guys. A real eye-opener. I have a mate who is a painter and decorator. He tells his customers that he will use wilko paint. He has used crown, dulux etc but he prefers wilko all day long. He has customers that give him repeat work over and over again. Jusg like everything else, you pay for the name. Personally I've used layland granocryl exterior paint. £10 per 5 ltr at the range and trago mills, and found it to be brilliant. I painted one house 7 years ago now and still looks as fresh as the day it was done. And given that the house in 1m from a busy road, I think that's great. Great content, keep it up. 👍

Fair play to the king build😁. Thanks Roger and skillbuilder we in the trade need this help. Painting a bedroom out Dulux £50 10 LITRES Leyland £20 10litres just to blat it out

Dulux paint is magic - I did all my skirting boards in white once, and a few months down the line they had turned to yellow.

i would have walked out without paying for it , mixed or not.

I'm a professional painter and have been for 30 years, I haven't used dulux since 2010 when the EU forced paint manufacturers to change their paint formulas to have lower voc's. Also dulux was bought by Akle Nobel (Crown manufacturer) and since these 2 changes dulux has gone down hill in quality with prices going through the roof. I now use a masonry paint made by Bedec, it is quite pricey but its breathable and is 400% stretchable so any of those hair line cracks that always appear are hidden under the paint. Good job fellas I always enjoy your videos.

been telling people this for years. They slap "Trade" on somthing and you assume its cheaper but its often the otherway around.

I would have walked and left them with the product. Three parts constitute a contract offer, consideration and acceptance. Because they never told you the price up front , no contract existed, therefore you should have walked away. Great video, just shows the trade centres are not looking after the industry.

Submit it to Which? I'm sure they'd love to investigate these two paints.

Could not agree more, a mate recommended Dulux Trade (Interior Wall Emulsion) but also ended up during Lockdown to use Retail. Would always go with Retail !! Leyland emulsion now my go to for ceilings too .., thanks guys, much appreciated...

There is a difference in coverage retail takes three coats to cover trade two ! . Retail is pre thinned for the retail market ,trade isn’t . But on the other hand they keep messing about with the formulas and the whole range isn’t as good as it used to be !!! I use isomat paints now cheaper and better coverage

I've seen similar with "Trade"; I always work out the price in advance. If the branch tries it on, I give them one chance to price sensibly otherwise I walk out.

Well done, I’ve paid the extra for trade paint in the past and found it to be chemically identical to retail formulas. Glad you are using your audience to bring attention to this issue.

Hi Roger I'm am so glad you have shown this the price of paint is astronomical now it seems to increase by the week great video and I feel for your man there I wonder if he lost on that because how do you explain that one to your customer. Many thanks

Hi guys. I’ve been painting for over 30 years and I would never use b&q for the Dulux paint. It’s far more watery and takes more coats than Dulux trade. I pay around £40 for a mixed up colour and after the mist coat I only do a further two. This is only my opinion and hope this helps. J

I used to work for Unilever. One day the machine that put invoices in envelopes malfunctioned and sent second pages to different customers, effectively showing customers what the competitors were paying! I had to install a new 250K machine the week after!

used Dulux trade for years then like you i realised the cost difference, since then i only use the trade version if the client wants a very specific colour mixed i cant build in that kind of pricing to most jobs. I've never found any difference in consistency or colour between the two. and i will state its very good paint which i use as a preference for all external work with a mixture of roller brush and spray. and thanks for raising this on a great forum il keep peeled for an eventual outcome (hopefully)

I watched this when it came out and was interested as our local hardware shop only stocks the Trade Dulux range. Last week I was decorating a room and I had some vinyl matt left over but also bought a large tub of normal Dulux vinyl matt from a DIY superstore; I was painting grey walls white. The Trade covered in two coats, but the normal took three coats - that would support some of the difference in price; however, if you take into account time and effort of having to do an extra coat, that might swing the balance... Obviously, refreshing a wall in the same colour, it would make sense to use the cheaper one

We have the same thing going on over here in Dublin. Johnstone’s and Dulux trade centres charging ridiculous prices for paint compared to the DIY places and a lot of the paint is the same

I think this is a very important question and clearly warrant further scrutiny....Thanks for the vid

A friend had a similar experience in the Dulux trade centre here in Dublin. & I had a similar experience with the Fleetwood trade centre, but with metal paint. Wanted crazy money; Twice as much as the price of Hammerite paint. & when I got a chance to use there metal paint a few weeks ago of a painter, it was bog standard. Lesson: Stay away from those paint trade centres. unless you like getting ripped off.

Insight from Australia. From my experience, trade centres are only interested in customers with big accounts and high volume orders. e.g commercial work - apartments etc. As the volume goes up, price goes down. Personally, as a small business, often doing small jobs, I find it cheaper to buy retail at the big box store rather than the Dulux trade centre. Although the difference in price is roughly 20%, not as much in your case. They don't care if your're trade or not, they only care about how much you're buying. e.g Economies of scale. Anyway, who cares , any painter worth his salt knows the most important component is the prep, not the brand. Dulux has the best marketing by far, but when you've done the correct preparation, it doesn't matter what brand you use. Don't get bogged down on these big companies who have lost their way chasing the profits, vote with your feet and buy another brand instead who wants your business. There's plenty of them around. Cheers Roger and James . Keep up the good work. Darren from Australia

Been there, got the bill at the counter, told them to shove it. Drove across town to a retail centre.

Trade paint is generally more pigmented.... in other words you can water down trade paint more for a first coat on pebbledash for example and therefor it goes further whilst holding its colour more due to more pigments. Just what I’ve heard from a long serving decorator. I do a lot of painting myself and do prefer the trade paint as it just flows better 👍 just my opinion. That’s all 😀

Thanks for the heads up guys as I've just bought an old house that needs gutting and redecorating so I wont be going to the Dulux center.

As an architect I am always baffled and amazed at the mark up of trade paint and how they can get away with it! In my opinion, Its mainly to catch the the bigger contractors on large projects - whereby they cannot go to b&q to buy 1000 tins of paint, and they make big big bucks from marking it up with very little changes for people with pockets that never end. It’s just disgusting and a real shame the smaller more money conscious projects can also get dragged into this money grabbing ideal!

I would have turned on my heel when he mentioned the price, I wouldn't even have said anything to him. Let them worry about why a customer walked out. I think you may be too nice a chap. Lesson learned I suppose. Good luck next time.

Yeah moved away from Dulux along time ago for their prices, this is extreme though!

Ha ha! I recently did a house with weather shield jasmine white...tbh, I had EXACTLY the same complaint... I got them for £83 each 10l tin. I ended up luckily only buying a couple then switching to the cheaper The thickness was minutely thicker in the trade paint. Never again. Brilliant video

Try this. I went into Dulux for 10 litres of Gardenia masonry but checked price first because onced mixed there is no return. Even on account it was over £100. So I went to a local independent decorators merchant where they had 7.5 litre tubs of Dulux trade white masonry which they tinted to Gardenia free of charge. I paid £28 all in. Most independents will do this, some may charge a couple of pounds. Just make sure you buy all the paint for the job at the same place, mixed in the same way.

Been there, done it, got the T-shirt... The paints referred to are extremely close to chemically identical. The coverage quoted is always an estimate anyway, and it is stated as higher on the other container (by a tiny 6.66% in this case) by assuming a higher 'trade' skill level when using it. It's all legal and marketing smoke and mirrors.

Having been in the factory at ICI in Slough I already knew they put the same paint in different brandings!! so trade in many cases makes no difference and in this case pay more!

Came here on the back of the beanie video... nice to see how dulux treats their customers... I might not use a lot of paint in my working week... but I promised you this... what i do use...none of it will have the dulux name on it from now on.

I used Dulux trade white interior and retail version for my office renovation. The trade was more money but I used two coats where the retail needed at least three coats. The walls were done in trade Cornish Clay colour not available at B&Q. Again 2 coats over the most scabby wood chip looked great.

when comparing the Dulux brilliant white interior emulsions I have found that there is a big difference in the relative weight of the tubs, the trade variety being significantly heavier, which indicates more pigment is used, it is also much thicker, than the B&Q retail variety.

Most customers of theirs are firms who put it on account and just receive a monthly bill with hundreds/ thousands of litres on, and the bigger firms have preferential rates (roughly equal to the B&Q price stated here). They charge this because they can get away with it.

thanks for the video i can relate to that...not a tradesman but during the lockdown I've been busy redecorating - pretty much done the whole house inside and out and one of the best decisions I've made, is to stop using Dulux - not only is their customer service awful as you've shared but I've found much better quality paint over the last 9 months...the other thing that really p'd me off with Dulux is that they have that weather shield paint in 3 different versions at three different prices with hardly any difference (as described on their labels).

I use leyland primer/undercoat for bare wood and it’s bloody brilliant, cheap as chips. It’s great paint in general, the white emulsion is great too. Edit: Dulux sprit based gloss goes yellow after a few years.

Stopped using Dulux a while ago - paint quality seemed to go down, prices went up. Crown, Sandtex etc just as good if not better. The exception is Ducksback (same company, AzkoNobel) as it seems decent stuff.

Take this further lads. Get trading standards to look into it for a start.

Thanks for the video Roger and James. I had a similar experience at my local Dulux decorator centre. I asked for a 5l tin of Trade colour mixed kitchen grade emulsion without asking the price. I've previously bough the same paint at my local independent builders merchant, so thought I knew more or less what it would cost. As it was a Saturday afternoon my indy was closed, so off I went to the Dulux shop. When it turned out they were in the region of twice the price I was shocked. I won't be going back there - simples! Good luck bringing Dulux to account.

1 litre oil based eggshell at Brewers £32 same paint at Greys £11, Yes a lot of trade paints have much higher opacity and save a ton of time and work and examples like this are sneaked in under the radar so very happy to see you post this, same with caulk, some places it's £3.50 and only £1 in another shop for the same size and quality, imagine if paint companies could not sell cheaper to the public than to trade, what a great day that would be for the industry. good work lads.

i noticed this the other week when the onlty cashmere colour gloss i could find was dulux and it was £90 for a can... i though the same thing like oh trade paint, must be a discounted price for like 20 literr or something crazy but no. it was a regular size tin you can buy but multipel times the price. only possible difference i can tell is they offer different colours,, and apparently they also do the exact same colours which is nuts. but theres no reason those colours cost more to make.

As a decorator for many years, trade Dulux is a rip off, even with the 20% discount I get from my supplier. Problem is, B&Q don’t mix Dulux any more. They only stock a limited selection of off the shelf colours. Try Valspar from B&Q which is a quality paint or stick with off the shelf Dulux from B&Q.

Great video guys, I have had just this experience with Dulux. I brought some Dulux Matt from B&Q, but they didn’t have every colour in stock, went to a Dulux trade center, less than half a mile away & got stung. They didn’t mention how much it was & gave me the same waffle about it being better paint. I didn’t get done as bad as James, mine was only double the price. When I asked about it, they offered me 10% off if I spent over £100. Absolutely disgusting, I won’t be going back again.

Well done lads, spot on. I've found exactly the same with this brand and, in fact less expensive Leyland paints when it comes to pricing. B&Q clearly have the buying power here. For example, 2.5l of Leyland MDF primer was £15 in B&Q whereas at an Ipswich well know paints specialist they wanted £45 for the same. Good job for me though it was out of stock due to Covid etc. otherwise I would have been tempted to pay more just to have it. Hard won lesson here is to shop around and do then vote with your feet. That way the message will get home to them that they can't keep on getting away with it. Keep up the good work!

I'm not a decorator, but I haven't bought Dulux since I bought a very expensive tin of their paint which had next to no pigment in it - was like trying to paint with skimmed milk (and yes, I did stir it). Leyland is my current favourite.

I would be interestrd to see an analysis if they are found to be identical that will cause a major shake up within dulux

Other than asking how much, in the same situation I would have walked out. A mate worked in a paint factory and said that retail brands and known brands were often the same paint. Sometimes they change the viscosity slightly for the retail brand. Some retailers insist on the same viscosity for their own brands, so you get exactly the same paint but with different labelling.

Very well done for exposing this Dulux scam. I have an account with one of their "Trade" centre's in North London (soon to be cancelled!!) and feel I've got to be on my toes in terms of ordering paints (Btw, I'm an established building contractor in the area) and it's quite easy to detect a sense of unease from the sales assistants that they are being so obviously coerced into essentially conning customers. Such a shabby way of doing business. Anyway, thank you for another great vid...

It appears the trade is in a silver can you can melt down at the end, the other only plastic. Good value to me.

I go to a local paint factory and buy from the factory shop brilliant deals and a full range of colours and applications Best deals are the dented tins ... Homebase £24 factory shop £4 +vat

Can I recommend Johnstone's in Chessington or Balham. We have used them and they're products for a long time and they have never let us down. Great guys too always look after you and even help you load the van!

We needed to paint some wooden battern and board in our front room. Went to bnq, we wanted a dark green satin. They kept trying to persuade us to get the wood specific paint, which was 3 times more than normal satin, which can also be used on wood. We left without paint, went to dulux center, had a lovey dark green satin for wood, 3 times more expensive than bnq. Think it was like 80 quid for 10ltrs. Went to wilko, got a nice dark green matt, a tin of satin paint, 25 quid the lot. Went on lovely, the varnish has a really nice finish on it. Job done and very pleased with the result. Bnq are rip off, dulux even more so!!

I'm a hotelier (34 bedrooms) and I get most of my paint for free at my local council rubbish tip. Yes, really. Lots of council tips put tins of paint in a special place. Not every council tip does it but many do. Paint is difficult to recycle, so members of the public are welcome to take it for free. I visit the tip once or twice every month and always take lots of free paint. Typically I'll get two or three half-buckets of white or magnolia, a couple of tins of varnish or stain, some Hammerite and a couple of half-tins of gloss. Save the oil-based stuff in the shed 'cos fire officers don't like gallons of oil-based paint indoors. Keep the water-borne stuff indoors 'cos of the risk of frost-damage. Some emulsion is smelly so I quickly chuck it out. The rest is good. After four or five months I've got enough to completely repaint a couple of bedrooms. Sometimes I find a couple of tins of new unopened paint, with the little metal clips still attached.

I used to work for Crown Paints, so I have a few insights to what goes on - we viewed a lot of retail paint as awful stuff to use - but the public want it cheap. This is all about opacity which isn't defined on the tine. How many coats to get the cover you need. You can disguise this by raising the viscosity - it's jelly like consistency - so as you load a brush with something like loose jam it looks good and thick. You could compare something like Little Green Paint Co emulsion with retail Dulux emulsion to see how that works - same coverage quite different opacity. Trade paint will also be higher priced as the distribution costs are higher - it’s easy to send paint to supermarkets by the 40-ton truck - not so easy to get it out to thousands of smaller quantity trade shops. The answer will be somewhere inside Dulux - but as with all huge companies, management staff just can't find out who to ask - it will be a chemist in a paint lab somewhere in the World.

Had similar with Johnstones, ran out of magnolia gloss bought from The Range shop and had to get a exactly the same from the local Johnstones decorating centre at around twice the price!

I used to work for Akzo Nobel and when I was decorating the outside of my house I decided to use my staff discount in the trade centre, even with staff discount it was still cheaper at B&Q. And I know how much it costs to make the stuff,,say no more.

Oh I'm all over this (long post coming) A few yrs ago I went to B&Q (on a Sunday(not at work)) to get some paint for my hallway, chose a colour and B & Q didnt have it in stock, went to the 'Dulux Trade Centre' was told that's NOT a Dulux colour!! when I asked why I was told that it's a B&Q colour in a Dulux can made to a totally different recipe, ended up buying a better colour from Dulux...more fool me but it was my own house so sucked the price up. During 'lockdown' I needed some paint for my lounge (as I couldn't go to work the wife ...you know the rest) went to Dulux looking for paint I was told a minimum of £100 order!!!!! I wanted 5 ltrs!!! Last week a customer (Friend) wanted me to use Dulux 'Soft Sheen' in white (just white not a colour mix) went to the Dulux centre asked about their paint, they don't make a 10ltr tub of soft sheen as it it 'too heavy' not sure what that means tbh and only sold it in 5ltr cans, a 10ltr in matt was £75, the 5ltr soft sheen was £48 as I needed 30ltrs that nearly £300 just for the walls no woodwork paint, went over the road to Johnstones bought 3 10ltr tubs of Johnstones Cover Plus (my goto paint normally & and was no 'heavier' than a normal pot of paint) 7.5 ltrs of Leyland Eggshell total cost £194!!! I never use Dulux for 2 reasons 1) I think their paint is overrated and not good to use (IMO) 2) way too expensive. They live off the Dulux name ONLY their paint has been poor for over 20yrs for the price of it, Albany paint from Brewers is better as is Johnstones Cover plus. DO NOT BUY DULUX ITS A RIP OFF

Thanks for this. I won’t buy Dulux based on this experience. It’s not about the one-off incident, which you might be able to forgive - it’s about the terrible service and lack of any desire to be accountable as a manufacturer. Been in the game too long, Dulux have.

Previous we had B&Q Crown emulsion paint at £10 when we was paying £25 direct from Crown . We could not see a difference on that but was told it was older paint and to move B&Q could sell it for that price and also crown did discount there to £13. I think they have up prices as there is a shortage on some . I try to order some my mum wanted only to find the only place i could get it from was over double the price . I really enjoyed watching this sat waiting for the answer . lol

I purchased some Homebase paint, and I was shocked how well it covered and well it looked. I mean shocked. I am going back to try their brilliant white and see how well that covers because the Dulex white needs at least 3 coats.

Just repainted my house in Merstham with Sandtex smooth masonry paint. Just as good as Dulux in my opinion. Paid £29.99 For 10 litres from Screwfix locally and they hold it in stock. DIY outlet price locally is £29.99 for 5 litres. No brainer.

I bet the extra 10 square metres is because a professional painter is going to waste a bit less than a non painter like me would. A pro knows how to lay it out, they won't drip and splash, their brushes and rollers won't be absolutely caked full of paint when they're finished.

PPG johnstones/Leyland trade decorating places have been getting silly with the prices on certain products as well in recent years, given up completely with Leyland White gloss, used to be fine but then every can just seemed thinner than the last. One exterior wood project I did 5 years ago is still good, most recent one is cracked after 3 months and wrinkled after final coat despite more than 30 hours dry time in summer plus took more coats. Both projects sanded to bare wood, cleaned and primed with Leyland primer.

Speaking as a non tradesman, when you buy from a DIY this is builk produced and in large batches, when you buy from a centre they have to make a small batch with an individual branch profit, hence the reduculious prices.

Then they wonder why their trade centres are going bust 🙄 Most of the time big outlets like B&Q are cheaper due to sheer volume of order I imagine but just shocking dulux couldn’t give a toss. Their normal trade paint is for sure better quality but as always you got to shop around and make case by case comparisons.

As a Dulux approved “Trade Professional” buying in bulk discounts through the Dulux branch are sufficient to explain the huge difference in price. B&Q would get a similar discount to a Dulux Trade Professional. As for the product being any different...that’s garbage! Can you imagine at the Dulux factory “ Ok guys, stop that retail junk production line and remove those tubs please and set them to one side.” “ Now, clear out all the process equipment and start again with the fancy trade formula and make sure the colour and texture remain exactly the same!.” My hunch is that Dulux would assume a professional painter would be able to make their paint go further rather than the product being any different which is why the coverage is different.

As a bricklayer we get the same problem with cement, selco being £3.90 a bag then going to build base which is owned by the same company nearly £8 per bag!

I used to work for a paint firm and I can tell they don't make different versions, just label the same products in different ways. For example white emulsion labelled 'white, super white,brilliant white etc are all the same pigment' just they 'dirty' the white with a spot of black its the amount of pigment in the product that counts for covering power

Perhaps you should report them to Trading Standards.

I got caught out years ago using Trade Decorating Centres, but I wised up quickly. The Big Sheds are the best prices, especially if you look out for the offers like 3-for-2. Even Screwfix and Toolstation have good prices.

I am still green in the trades, however from my experience if I have a decent wall that needs two coats then B&Q is fine, that being said if it is a bad wall, a good few years old with alot of abuse trade is the way to go, B&Q 4 coats VS trade 2...... if you have not got a account at a deluxe merchant you will always pay more.... alot more. For an example I get 80% off for buying drainage just because I am "in the trade" from a nation wide building suppliers.

My decorator wont use Dulux, so the bits in my house he did are in Velspar & I must say (as I did a room in it) it goes on & covers so much better than Dulux. Trade card at B&Q made it fairly decent price as well. My electrician was having an argument with the trade suppliers as he can get the same thing cheaper in B&Q/Screwfix than his "special" trade price, he also had an argument with B&Q as he wanted a bathroom suite. He priced it up with retail prices - went to pay at the trade counter & it was substantially more expensive, they wouldnt match the retail deal - In the same shop!

Only half way through the vid BUT let me just say we need more of this! These people have been getting away with this for sooo many years its basically a crime!

i can tell you now, having worked in one of their factories in Australia that from one 50 000 litre tank they fill about 8 different brands including all the hardware brand paints. the only difference is the cost of the can they use for brands. Some have a sticker on can and others are transfer, there can be a difference of $8.00 per litre. The cheaper paints are last years formula

Enlightening vid as usual. I've had the same bs from Brewers and Crown decorating centres. A few months ago I got some coo var floor paint from Crown/Crawley. It was off the shelf,I kept asking how much it was but the person said the plastic screens make it hard to hear. Anyhow because I was using vouchers the transaction was going through. 120 quid for 5l.,nearly fainted. I then googled other places in case I needed more. 60/80 pounds. I don't expect to get ripped off by trade centres but I'll live and learn ,Hopefully

As a painter and decorator since 1983 , i have had this discussion on many occasions with all trade paint merchants. They always come back with the same answer " Trade paint has better opacity and flow rate " ( covers better and goes further) on the rarest of occasions I have noticed a slight difference between retail and trade, but in general not much in it. When purchasing from a merchant the paint mixing colour can vary from one tin to another whilst off the shelf pre mixed retail colours remain consistent 🤔 . I always price for two coats, if your decorator is happy to use retail and you are prepared for it possibly needing another coat at an extra cost to you it will still be possibly cheaper than the price you are overpaying in the merchant 👍🏻

Their trade centre prices are highly inflated to show what a saving they have when customers setup accounts and get further discounts when you hit certain thresholds. The discounts are what they should be charging you in the first place. It is a con just to create a feeling of a loyalty discount for staying with them, they will even give you an account manager to make you feel like your custom is so important, working out better deals but still only at the price they should be charging. Always shop around and always compare prices even from the same place you usually buy from.

It was known for years that Akzo Nobel wanted to buy Dulux, eventually acquiring ICI in 2007, knowing such (perhaps previously) 'trusted brands' can be 'milked' by increasing the prices continually, so as to yield more and more profits!!!

We get charged £55.23 for 5ltr's (Mixed) at our local trade counter. same paint local B&Q £25.95.

Similar situation with Benjamin Moore in the US. The price I get from their stores as a contractor is the same price as what I can buy it off the shelf at hardware stores that are Benjamin Moore retailers (ACE hardware, Do It Best, etc).

Shocking customer service. They’ve not even tried to apologise . Poor. Sorry to hear James is in the red with this build as well....such a fantastic job I feel really if he’s not been able to turn a profit. Hopefully this channel will result in a wave of extra work for him.

Similar thing happened to me at Crown Decorating Centre in Gants Hill, was looking fora wood paint in coffee colour to paint the stairs. They mixed it up without telling me the price £70 + VAT for 2.5ltrs ..i was gobsmacked and had to pay it..walked down the aisle saw something exactly similar on their shelves for £28 + VAT. Just walked out of their store cussing myself.

Your totally right here, probably the same product, shop around, trade paint shops are always bumped up prices due to the fact firms with accounts use them and operatives don’t care about the price as it’s firms cash, I got same can of gloss mixed at the blue pant shop and it was £80 and bbq mixed it the same for less than half.

This is my take on it (I do some decorating as part of my trade but I am not exclusively a decorator). Trade paint typically has a greater opacity which makes changing colours much quicker - often only needing two coats. The retail paints can take many coats to achieve the same thing. To give you an example, I was painting a customer's room, going from magnolia silk to white silk. Unfortunately nowhere had a white trade silk in stock so I just bought the regular retail Dulux white silk. It took 4 coats to *mostly* cover the magnolia. And if I looked closely I could still just see the magnolia peeping through. A trade paint is generally made for tradesmen to be in and out much quicker as almost all are charging for the job. The longer they take, the less profit they make. However, the markup on trade paint is ridiculous as I figure the manufacturers are trying to share the profits with the tradesman. Also, trade emulsions, I find, generally splash less - but this could be directly related to the better opacity. I generally do not buy Dulux emulsion as I frequently am not impressed with various aspects of it, though I am sure there are lots of professional decorators who swear by it. But, all in all, it sounds like you've been shafted. Thank you for sharing your experience and hopefully Dulux suffers from the negative press.

Great masonry paint that. I’ve had that issue. I love their Dulux Diamond Eggshell. I used it on a feature wall in my new house. It cost me about £96 for a 5L tin. Mixed colour. Now I was told by painters I’d had my pants pulled down. And probably so. BUT what can you do? Yes you can get another brand that’s just as good. But in my head at the time I knew the results I’d get from Dulux paint so I just went for it. The prices are unbelievable compared to the likes of Homebase but they don’t have the colour range especially for Trade gloss, they don’t mix it. Joe public will pay these prices, you get your more “money isn’t a issue” customer who visit these Dulux centres. People are paying the prices. I’ve haggled them since and it’s surprising how low they can go. But in general it’s “bend over to the front and touch ya toes”. In Lockdown the auld faithful Cuprinol fence paint was so hard to get the prices online went up a bit. I felt like a member of the Mexican cartel when my boxes from Amazon arrived THREE WEEKS after order. 😷

Now I know why everyone was buying dulux weathershield white when the local shop had it for £22.00

Only paint that I like using from Dulux, is satinwood white for woodwork. Only different that I found, trade is thicker.

Interesting vid, but it is a different issue to the one we have had. We have been decorating a very large house we have moved into in lovely Devon. We have used numerous types of emulsion and for the most important room - the sitting room we used Johnson Trade mixed to a colour code, this was good and covered well. However every time we have used retail so called Breatheasy paints from Crown or even Homebase own brand, we ended up using a huge amount of paint for the size of room and colour covered. It seems to me this is the rip off -- having to use twice the amount of paint because of its poor quality - to fix a problem that never really existed - fumes from emulsion !

Had the same questions when we needed an extra tub on a job and Sod’s law Homebase and wicks were sold out so got one from Dulux, we were told by them that Homebase and wicks stuff is watered down! We didn’t notice any difference when finishing the Job!

Moral of the story: Expect to get screwed and agree all prices before any commitment.

I bought sulus dulux emulsion first with trade (for £90) then for £35 in b and q. For the exact same shade and paint type the trade one came off darker. The coverage and finish and ease of painting is the same.

As a painter and decorator by trade for 11 years, the only time I go to Dulux trade is when a customer specifically requests their colour/paint. My last trip to Dulux cost me £86 for 2.5L of weathershield satin. Insane. I use Johnstone’s and Crown Trade, far cheaper, and products are as good as Dulux or arguably better. These prices are exclusive to Dulux, use trade paint with competitors and pricing is 2 or 3 times cheaper.

Interesting video be good to have a follow up video if you come to a conclusion. I'm never sure the difference think is a scam! I'd have left it on the counter even after they mixed it! Bet the poor girl that had to deal with you complaint gets a shit wage despite the cost of the paint!

Johnstone's will colour match and it's excellent covering

Just bought an old victorian house needs renovations but I won't be using deluxe products, cheers guys

Trading standards should be the ones to analyse this paint variant (if their is one)and take this forward please do update on this 👍