Coatings World - July 2010

Nippon Paint Co., Ltd.
Osaka, Japan
www.nipponpaint.com

PUBLIC COMPANY
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1881
HEADCOUNT: 1,675
COATINGS REVENUES: $2.334 billion ; (2008: $2.396)
TOTAL REVENUES: $2.334 billion ; (2008: $2.3962)
NET INCOME: $94 million ; (2008: $18)

SEGMENT BREAKDOWN

• Coatings Materials: 95%

• Fine Chemicals: 5%

KEY PEOPLE Kenji Sakai, president, representative director; Yoshio Andou, senior vice president, general manager of trade use paint division and executive director; Ryoichi Baba, senior vice president, representative director; Kiyohiko Chijiiwa, executive vice president and director; Kanji Nishijima, vice president.

Nippon Paint manufacture all types of paints and coatings including those for automobiles, construc- tion, architecture, steel structures, ships, metal, electrical equipment, machinery, roadways and household appliances among others. Nippon Paint saw its sales drop slightly in 2009, but was able to grow net income from $18 billion to $94 billion due to restructuring.

In 2009 the company appointed Kenji Sakai as the new president of Nippon Paint. Mr. Sakai replaced Makoto Matsuura, effective April 1, 2009.

During the year, Nippon opened a new plant in China as part of a restructuring of its industrial paint production locations in that country to increase efficiency and output capacity. The company spent about $30 million on the facility, for which it acquired a 140,000 square meter plot in Tianjin. It built a production wing for powdered paints used on home appliances and furniture, and began operations there in June. Production facilities for related liquid paints and resins will be built on the same site before year’s end.

In terms of new products, Nippon continued to broaden its offerings in diverse markets around the globe. For instance, in Pakistan Nippon Paint launched its latest innovation in 2009—Nippon Spot-less—a water-based emulsion that repels stains and is highly washable. It is an odorless emulsion and has near zero VOCs.

In Singapore in September, Nippon Paint launched an environmentally friendly exterior paint—SolaReflect—that reduces heat build-up by reflecting infra red light from coated surfaces. This allows less heat to be absorbed into external surfaces and surroundings, creating a cooler surface temperature of up to 5° C. SolaReflect is environmentally friendly as it helps reduce heat build-up and subsequently decreases the amount of power needed for air-conditioning or cooling off, which indirectly reduces carbon emissions.

Also in Singapore, Nippon Paint introduced Aqua Bodelac,
a breakthrough in water-based enamel paint technology,
according to the company. It was awarded the Green Label by
the Singapore Environmental Council. Aqua Bodelac is a
water-based modified acrylic gloss enamel paint with low VOC
that is ideal for interior wood and metal surfaces.

Expanding in Thailand

In 2009 Thailand became the first market to launch Nippon’s latest technological breakthrough—Advanced Trio Fresh—available in its new acrylic elastic paint, Nippon 3-In-1 DuraFresh. The technology helps protect walls from cracks and is resistant to dust and water streak marks. At the time of launch, Nippon planned to invest more than $6 million in marketing communications to expand the market, aiming to increase market share from eight percent to 10% with the sales target of $38 million by year’s end.

“This year, Nippon Paint will make an aggressive move in the Thai paint market, which is worth more than $380 million annually,” said Chalermpong Mahavanidvong, chief operation officer, Nippon Paint (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

“Thailand was selected as the world’s first market to officially launch Nippon 3-In-1 Durafresh with the world’s most advanced acrylic paint technology, Advanced Trio Fresh, which offers the ultimate protection from cracks and gives high resistance to dust and all water streak marks,” said Mahavanidvong.

Nippon 3-In-1 DuraFresh was developed through Nippon’s Advanced Trio Fresh Technology from Japan. The technology combines three acrylic paint technologies, including Advanced Core-Shell Technology with two layers of molecules: the harder outer layer and the softer inner layer. The harder outer layer provides washing ability and resistance to dust and water streak marks while the softer inner layer provides maximum elastic efficiency in protecting walls from cracks.

The second technology is Advanced Cross-linking Technology, which helps acrylic molecules penetrate deeply into a nano level of paint molecules thoroughly integrating acrylic molecules and paint molecules throughout the entire paint film, leaving no space for dust and water, according to the company.

The third technology is Advanced Nano Technology that helps strengthen the two technologies at the nano level, providing maximum strength and durability in every environmental condition.