HEXIS buzzing after FESPA success
New colours for its Candy Fence PPF wrap film range, some innovative new products to help get more life out of surfaces in the most challenging of terrains – from the bottom-side of boats through to wind farms! – plus the launch of some exciting new initiatives, including a far-reaching Australia-wide apprentice program and a new international wrap masters competition…HEXIS at FESPA and HEXIS here in Australia is positively buzzing with opportunity.
“Ironically, it probably started with our price freeze,” explains HEXIS Australia MD, Ian Parsonson. “Admittedly, the decision not to initiate any price rises for 2026 was made at the end of last year, before a host of other global factors influencing product price came into it. But we have still decided to stick to our guns and that in itself has helped to demonstrate to our customers who we are and what we’re about. When we say we are customer-focused, we are actually backing that with something tangible that directly supports them.”
“It is important to understand too that this approach has been made possible both by the over-arching culture of HEXIS globally and the fact that the company is still a family-owned entity, which can afford us more flexibility when making decisions that positively impact our customers.”
Parsonson understandably had tears in his eyes when he talked about the original motivation behind HEXIS’s new apprentice program: “The origins of our new apprenticeship program link back to the memorial scholarship we launched in honour of Daniel Gherini, Chris Gherini’s son who is a BDM at HEXIS Australia. Daniel passed away in an accident in 2025 while preparing for his own apprenticeship, so we thought it would be a great way to honour his memory, with the idea to sponsor one apprentice each year to undertake a four-day training course at our training facility in Keysborough, Victoria – the Daniel Gherini Memorial Apprentice Scholarship.”
“But in the end we had six really good applications come through, so we looked at the costs and resources involved and decided, you know what, let’s just give them all a scholarship, we’ll give them free training and get them all to come. The six even includes a couple of apprentices from Tasmania and one young girl flying in from Karatha in WA.”
“There is clearly a need for more engaged and experienced young talent in our industry, so if we can play a small but significant part in that at HEXIS, so much the better.”
Parsonson continues: “What has been a welcome surprise in all this is that we’ve discovered that the amount of female apprentices we have come across since casting the net far and wide for this program, is actually very encouraging and we’ve even been able to help place one or two on full apprenticeships with some of our customers.”
Stepping up from its apprenticeship programs, another exciting venture HEXIS has recently embarked on is its own search ‘for the best PPF installer in the world’.
A global HEXIS competition, which will see an all-expenses paid trip to HEXIS France HQ for the top Aussie wrappers that Parsonson and HEXIS Australia uncover over the next few PPF installation ‘battle’ months.
The qualification phases of the competition are taking place in 8 European countries along with USA, Australia and the Middle East, each seeing 30 participants compete in demanding technical challenges, with 5 winners from each area ultimately selected to represent their country in the final in France. Parsonson adds: “I’ve already witnessed some exceptional talent around the country, so it would be great to see an Aussie wrapper going out and winning this thing.”
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