values, it is actively fulfilling its
obligations as a corporate citizen and maintains harmonious
relations with local communities
and people.
The Magnolia Awards, including
the Magnolia Memorial Award, the
Magnolia Honor Award and Honorary
Citizen Award, were established by
the Shanghai Municipal Government
in 1989. This year the local government presented 50 Magnolia Memorial
Awards and 11 Magnolia Honor Awards,
and it named two Magnolia Honorary
Citizens. Over the past 27 years, nearly
1,300 recipients from all lines of work
and every corner of the world have won
Magnolia Awards.
PPG Acquires Majority
Interest in Sealants Business
of Le Joint Français
PPG Industries has announced that it has
completed its acquisition of a majority
interest in the aerospace and automotive sealants and adhesives business of Le
Joint Français (LJF), a long-term licensee
of PPG’s aerospace sealant technology.
The new joint venture is called Sealants
Europe SAS. Financial terms were not
disclosed.
Sealants Europe SAS employs more
than 200 people and will continue to operate in Bezons, France.
LJF is headquartered in France and is
part of the Hutchinson Group, a world
leader in sealing systems, vibration, acoustic and thermal insulation, fluid transfer
systems, transmission and mobility.
Axalta Coating Systems
and Hendrick Motorsports
Extend Relationship with
Multi-Year Agreement
Axalta Coating Systems will continue its
longstanding partnership with Hendrick
Motorsports after agreeing to a contract
extension that will expand its presence
and take one of the most enduring spon-sorships in NASCAR through 2018.
Beginning in 2016, Axalta will become
a primary sponsor of the No. 88 Chevrolet
SS team of driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. for
13 Sprint Cup Series races annually, an
increase of three per season. Axalta will
also be featured as a major associate
sponsor during all non-primary events.
The agreement extends a multi-fac-eted partnership – now in its 23rd full
season – that began in November 1992
when the company first sponsored
driver Jeff Gordon and his No. 24
Hendrick Motorsports team. Gordon,
who is in the midst of his final full-time
Sprint Cup campaign, will continue to
work with Axalta as a spokesperson
and global business advisor. The multi-year relationship was announced earlier this year.
On the racetrack, Axalta’s relationship with Hendrick Motorsports has
yielded four Sprint Cup Series championships and 92 victories. Axalta has hosted
thousands of customers at events and
fashioned some of the most iconic paint
schemes in NASCAR history. Earlier this
month, the two companies broke ground
on Axalta’s 45,000-square-foot Customer
Experience Center that will be located on
the Hendrick Motorsports campus in
Concord, North Carolina.
Earnhardt, 40, has 25 career Sprint
Cup victories, including two this season.
The Kannapolis, North Carolina, native
recently clinched a fifth consecutive appearance in the championship-deciding
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and
is a two-time winner of the prestigious
Daytona 500. He is NASCAR’s 12-time
most popular driver, as voted by fans.
HMG Paints Launch New
Website to Coincide with
85th Anniversary
To mark HMG Paints’ 85th Year of
business, a dedicated in-house team has
created a new website, www.hmgpaint.
com. The new website has everything
customers need to know about HMG as
a company, their products, and the services they offer, as well as being a vast
knowledge hub for general paint and
coatings information.
It was important for HMG to under-
stand what the customer wanted to get
out of the new website, so an external
survey was sent out, and the results of
these were analysed to determine what
features customers deemed the most
important. It was found to be key that
HMG retained the expert knowledge that
was held on the previous website. HMG
not only kept this, but added extra infor-
mation and advice in a variety of areas
to create a world-class paint and coatings
information database.
Another point heavily communicated
in the surveys was to keep it simple. User
friendliness and visual appeal are very
important to the website users. The website has been reviewed and optimized so
users of all technical abilities can easily
log on and find the information they need
with no problems.
One of the most notably updated areas
is the troubleshooting section. Here you
can find out about the common problems
that can arise with paint and coatings,
prevention tips, and most importantly,
rectification advice.
The Technical Data Sheets (TDS),
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS),
which are available for all products, are
all linked to automatically update to include any new information, so it can be
relied upon that the safety data provided
on the HMG Paints website will always
be completely up to date.
Additionally, the new website allows
users to share content across hundreds of
social media sites easily and quickly.
AkzoNobel Wins
Responsible Care Award for
Product Stewardship
AkzoNobel’s work in the area of product
stewardship has been recognized with the
2015 European Responsible Care Award
from the European Chemicals Industry
Association (CEFIC).
Presented in Brussels, Belgium, the
jury highlighted the company’s entry for
its priority substance program as “an
excellent demonstration on how to effectively engage in product stewardship”.
The winning submission highlighted the work that has been taking place
since 2011 to review and manage priority
substances that are used in AkzoNobel’s
products and processes.
The program takes a proactive global approach to the management of hazardous substances used or generated
in AkzoNobel products and processes
and promotes the use of safer and
