A Canadian F&I warranty provider aims to improve the vehicle ownership experience through the chemical products it blends and manufactures.
Dealers may remember the story of an F&I warranty provider that, during the early stages of the pandemic, retooled its Scarborough assembly lines and chemical blending processes to supply hand sanitizer to dealerships, first responders, and local hospitals.
That company is Diamond Kote, a more-than-meets-the-eye provider owned by IA Financial Group, and best described as “where the rubber meets the road.” It aims to enhance the vehicle and ownership experience for consumers through the chemical products that it manufacturers.
“We’re the only Canadian manufacturer in the F&I industry that produces our own chemicals, so we have that vertical integration,” said Jill Kleovoulos, Marketing Director at iA Dealer Services-Ancillary Products. “Our detailing products, our paint protection products, our interior protection products—these are the types of services we offer to dealers.”
Kleovoulos said that enhancing the ownership experience through the company’s products, services, and warranty programs can help customer vehicles look new for a longer period of time, and it can help protect them from the high costs associated with collisions or misfortunes that can happen along the way.
Diamond Kote was founded in Vancouver, B.C. by Chuck Walker. He originally worked in dealerships in the Western regions of Canada before launching the company in 1968. In 1971, he introduced automotive extended warranty programs as part of the services offered to help cover parts missed by some of the traditional manufacturer warranty programs.
The company partnered with Toyota in 1995 and has since worked with several other OEMs—including Honda, Acura, Lexus, General Motors, and Ford. iA Financial Group acquired both Diamond Kote and parent WGI Manufacturing (which produces the chemicals) in 2020, placing it squarely under the Industrial Alliance umbrella.
The overall goal of the company is to ensure their customers have a “really great” experience, whether that means through the dealership, or during an event resulting in a chip in the windshield or a tire hitting a pothole.
That manufacturing connection is important, as Kleovoulos said one of their areas of focus is to ensure the chemical formula relations going into the products are environmentally stable. “We have a research and development team that’s trying to improve those products to make them better for the environment, and make them better for the customers as well,” she said.
The overall goal of the company is to ensure their customers have a “really great” experience, whether that means through the dealership, or during an event resulting in a chip in the windshield or a tire hitting a pothole. “We want to make sure that the customer has a really positive customer experience when it comes to the claims,” said Kleovoulos.
To dealers, her message is simple: Diamond Kote is like Amazon on the go, in that they are flexible and adaptable, which is part and parcel with being vertically integrated and having the ability to control every step of the process along the way. As Kleovoulos notes, the company does its own blending and chemical manufacturing, it has its own warehouse facilities (in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, and New York), and it has the ability to supply chemical products (in some of its services) within 72 hours of processing.
“We really do have good warehouse fulfillment and an operations team that does pretty good forecasting,” said Kleovoulos. “I think it’s important because, and especially now, two and a half years into COVID, we’re starting to see that supply chain really bottleneck. So we’ve been keeping on top of it to make sure that we do have enough products on our shelves to supply the dealers so that they don’t feel that pinch.”
As for what is coming up in the pipeline, Kleovoulos said Diamond Kote plans to launch two new chemical products this year: a shine refresher product meant to refresh the “brilliance” in a vehicle’s vibrancy, and a matte ceramic product that is part of a growing trend. Both products are set to launch this spring.
