International Coatings Scene
EUROPE
BY SEAN MILMO
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT
MILMOCW@RODPUB.COM
BASF expands auto refinish operations
With the
opening of its
new Refinish
Competence
Center and
the expansion
of its training
program,
BASF will
continue to
be a leader in
the refinish
market.
The global coatings sector for auto- mobile refinishing is suffering from a severe shortage of skilled
personnel able to paint repair work to
professional standards.
The scarcity of expertise among spray
painters is a handicap for body shop businesses wanting to expand their operations.
It is also a major obstacle for entrepreneurs
in emerging economies like China and
Russia wishing to exploit a fast growing
demand for car repair services among an
increasing number of automobile owners.
Furthermore it is a big drawback for coating manufacturers. They are finding that
new products and systems incorporating
expensively developed technologies are not
being applied properly by refinishing
painters. Even worse, some body shop owners are being deterred from buying them
because their staff does not have sufficient
expertise to use them.
“Our customers are often telling us that our
new products or systems are very difficult to
work with because they do not have people
who are qualified enough to operate the
processes,” said Urban Johansson, head of
global training at BASF Coatings, a leader in
the worldwide market for refinish paints.
“This is a response we are getting not just
in developing markets but all over the world,”
he explained. “The level of knowledge in body
shops is generally very low at the moment,
even in parts of the Europe and the U.S.
“One of the problems is that there is a
scarcity or complete absence in some countries of teachers in vocational colleges able
to teach students in paint and refinish
processes to a level needed by body shops,”
Johansson continued. “The other difficulty is
that the body shops themselves provide
inadequate on-the-job training particularly
in new technologies and processes.”
Another stumbling block for coatings com-
panies in the refinish sector is a lack of uniformity in the content of training courses.
Even in countries like Germany, which has a
long-established car repair industry, comprising approximately 4,500 body shops taking in 2,000 apprentices annually, there are
major differences regionally.
“The trainees [in Germany] are often
instructed by teachers from a different field,
for example by electrical engineers or decorators,” said Michael Uhlenbrock, national
head trainer in Germany for Glasurit,
BASF’s car refinish coatings brand.
In the face of these skills shortages,
BASF’s strategy has been to aim for radical
changes in the education of body shop staff
by implementing a “Train the Trainer” program, which embraces not just repair businesses but teachers in vocational colleges.
As a result, it believes that in the provision
of training services it is now well ahead of its
major competitors, like DuPont, PPG and
AkzoNobel, while its strategy strengthens the
image and awareness of the Glasurit brand.
To give more impetus to its program,
BASF opened in September a new € 3. 5 million ($5 million) Refinish Competence
Center (RCC) at its coating headquarters in
Muenster-Hiltrup, Germany. The project
brings all of Glasurit’s centrally located
training team, made up of trainers, administrators and customer service representatives, into one building. It also accommodates the products of 24 companies providing body shop equipment and accessories.
The educational operation of the refinish
business currently has seven global trainers,
150 national trainers and 300 technicians in
65 countries. With the help of 46 training centres around the world, 10,000 people take
part in Glasurit courses, seminars and workshops annually. The Muenster-Hiltrup RCC
unit has been having on average 3,000 participants in its educational activities a year. But
