SkinzWraps of Dallas targets pricey cars for custom wraps

Every sensuous curve and line on the $310,000 Ferrari 599 looks absolutely right – for wrapping.How about a matte black surface over the Ferrari’s lustrous red or wine or blue paint – a kind of anti-flash panache? Or maybe something in faux carbon fiber?SkinzWraps Inc. of Dallas, a pioneer in the wrapping business, believes there is a growing market for unusual, highly individualized custom work on expensive vehicles such as the 599.

“Five years ago, we weren’t even thinking about this kind of work,” said Peter C. Salaverry, 38, chief executive of SkinzWraps. “But I think the auto industry is primed for it.”

For most of the last decade, the small publicly held company in Deep Ellum has slathered colorful advertising onto beer trucks and buses.

The durable wraps can be changed or removed with relative ease, and though expensive – most jobs cost between $3,000 and $4,500 – they are cheaper than other media or a paint job, Salaverry maintains.

And while commercial jobs still account for the vast majority of SkinzWraps’ work, the company is plunging into custom wraps for cars, convinced that is an area with great potential for growth.

“Now that we can show it can be done, we are pushing it,” said Salaverry, an animated, energetic attorney in jeans and a stylish gray work shirt who became chief executive in 2003.

A few weeks ago, SkinzWraps covered a new 599 Ferrari in flat black. Previously, the company wrapped a Lamborghini and a Porsche. All were industry firsts, Salaverry contends.

Wrapping is considered part of the outdoor advertising business, which recently reported flat first-quarter revenue, down 0.7 of 1 percent from last year, said Jeff Golimowski, spokesman for the Washington-based Outdoor Advertising Association.

“The bus stuff has been around for a while, but we didn’t see wrapping of cars until the last five or so years,” Golimowski said. “There aren’t many doing it.”

Performance

The vinyl material used by SkinzWraps has an adhesive on the back side, kind of like thin wallpaper.

Technicians use blow torches to stretch it and make it more pliable – all the while guaranteeing that they won’t scratch or damage the paint beneath it. Most of the application involves squeegees for smoothing and simple massaging by hand.

Last year, SkinzWraps did 6,000 vehicles, 80 percent of them commercial vehicles – and that doesn’t include the DART buses it wraps weekly, Salaverry said.

SkinzWraps, which occupies a 21,000-square-foot former machine shop, counts among its clients companies such as State Farm Insurance Corp., Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.

But it also has wrapped most of the Ferraris racing in the private Challenge series and has done work for Boardwalk Ferrari and Boardwalk Lamborghini of Dallas.

Moreover, the company has developed a perforated-looking wrap that Salaverry says reduces aerodynamic drag on vehicles, increasing top speed and fuel economy.

Shane Fox of Dallas liked the aesthetics of the carbon-fiber wrap on some of his race cars, which resembles the tough, light plasticlike material used on racing and some high-end cars.

So he had SkinzWraps wrap his Ferrari 599 in it.

“It had performance applications, and I liked that,” said Fox, 57, an entrepreneur with investments in radio and other businesses. “The way I look at it, I don’t have to wash it, and it’s more durable than paint.”

Simon Dawson of Houston hired SkinzWraps to coat his team’s Ferrari 430 race car because the material is lighter and more durable than paint.

“If the body takes a shot in a race, it also holds it together,” said Dawson, business sponsorship manager for Risi Competizione, run by Risi Ferrari-Maserati of Houston and Austin. “It’s just a complete package.”

SkinzWraps’ most unusual wrap was on one of the Challenge series Ferraris. It depicts the structure of the car beneath its skin as if it had been X-rayed. In the driver’s seat is a skeleton – its hands on the wheel and feet on the pedals.

“What we’re trying to do is find certain pockets of cars that would embrace this sort of individualized work,” Salaverry said. “We want to earn our credentials on the most expensive, most demanding cars.”

Personality

Commercial wrapping jobs still account for most of the company’s estimated $2 million in annual revenue, he said. Although the company is publicly held, it trades on the Pink Sheets exchange and does not disclose financial information.

However, he said SkinzWraps, which has 20 employees in its Dallas office, is profitable and carries little debt. Besides its central office in Dallas, it maintains satellite offices in New York, California, Florida and North Carolina.

Scott Ginsburg, owner of Plano-based Boardwalk Auto Group, said there is a market among high-end cars for SkinzWraps’ custom work, although he doesn’t know how large it is. The company has done jobs for Boardwalk, which includes Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini franchises.

“They bring some excitement and individuality to our segment,” Ginsburg said. “There is a portion of our owners who are interested in customizing their cars and being able to undo it when they sell them.”

Between now and November – when the Specialty Equipment Market Association stages its huge annual trade show in Las Vegas – Salaverry hopes to find an owner of a rare, extremely expensive Ferrari Enzo who will let him wrap the car for the show. Enzos cost about $700,000 new, and some have sold for $1 million or more.

“It’s never been done before,” he said. “I’m talking to a few collectors to see if anyone might be interested in letting us do their Enzo. It sounds crazy, but if we don’t push to new frontiers, we are confined by what we did in the past.”

By TERRY BOX / The Dallas Morning News

tbox@dallasnews.com