Our History

The Bote-Cote name and original formulas for the product were the brainchild of Patrick McGrath, a Canadian engineer and surfer.  He moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1977and has since moved north of Sydney.  Around 1980 a subsidiary of Jotun Paints had acquired the rights to the Bote-Cote product, but soon decided it did not fit with their normal paint product range.  Together with Roland Johnson of Marine Timbers Melbourne, Dr Bruce McConkey (an industrial chemist and producer of polyurethanes) acquired the Bote-Cote name and original formulas from them, and set up a joint business to manufacture and sell Bote-Cote in 1984.

Certain ingredients in the product proved to be unacceptable, so Bruce improved and extended the product range.  He devised new formulations, and added very high performance marine paint, glues and adhesives, and antifouling paint. In 1996 in response to market demand the business was relocated to Brisbane, which remains the head office and manufacturing site.

In 2004, Bruce wanted to reduce his workload so he transferred the business to Ian Phillips, an engineer who has been involved with boats, boat building and sailing for half a century.  Bruce has continued to maintain the values of the business.  There has been a strong ongoing collaboration between Ian and Bruce resulting in many improvements in product performance and safety and the introduction  of additional products, always with an emphasis on safer ways to do things.