Axalta Coating Systems Opens
New Commercial Offices in Spain
Axalta Coating Systems has opened new
commercial offices for its Spanish operations in Sant Cugat del Vallès near
Barcelona, Spain. The 550m2 facility is
home to Axalta’s powder, liquid industrial, OEM and refinish businesses. It is
designed to welcome visitors with a dedicated showroom to display the company’s
powder coating family of brands, four spacious meeting rooms and a reception area.
“Sant Cugat is part of a high-tech
business development project area that
offers customers and employees easy ac-
cess by air, motorway and train,” said
Mercè Berengueras who is the Sant Cugat
site manager and marketing manager for
Axalta Powder Coatings in Spain and
Portugal. “With a brand new modern
complex in Sant Cugat Park, this new fa-
cility signals our commitment to both the
Spanish and the wider European market.”
In the powder coatings showroom,
visitors to the offices can view samples
of every RAL color that Axalta’s pow-
der coating brands such as Alesta offer
in four different finishes. This space also
doubles as a showcase for design objects
that sport Axalta’s powder coatings. Said
Berengueras, “at the moment we are ex-
hibiting the Gardenias garden furniture
collection by Spanish designer Jaime
Hayon for BD Barcelona Design. Axalta’s
Alesta powder coatings are perfect for
outside furniture as they offer outstand-
ing durability and weather-resistance as
well as a fantastic range of colors.”
Axalta employees in Spain have already
moved to the new location and celebrated
the official opening of their new offices with
customers at a reception in April 2014.
This news follows other recent invest-
ment announcements. In March 2014,
Axalta announced a $60 million investment
in Wuppertal, Germany to build a next-
generation waterborne industrial coatings
manufacturing facility. In February 2014,
the company announced the third phase
of a three-year $32 million investment
program to expand waterborne capacity
in Brazil. Axalta is also expanding its wa-
terborne capacity in Shanghai to meet the
growth of automobile production in China.
The $50 million investment in China was
announced in May 2013 and the company
broke ground on the Shanghai construction
in January 2014.
Axalta Coating Systems in Spain is
also present in Madrid, Asturias and
Castellon with service centers, training
and warehousing facilities.
BASF Increases R&D
Spending
BASF increased spending on research
and development to €1.8 billion (2012:
€1.7 billion) in 2013. “In absolute
terms, we lead the field in the chemi-
cal industry with our research and de-
velopment expenditures,” said Andreas
Kreimeyer, member of the board of
executive directors of BASF SE and
research executive director, at the
Research Press Conference on the topic
”Nanotechnology: Small dimensions –
great opportunities” in Ludwigshafen.
BASF has a workforce of approximately 10,650 employees working in
international and interdisciplinary teams
on around 3,000 research projects to find
answers to the challenges of the future
and secure sustainable profitable growth
for the company.
The innovative strength of BASF is
demonstrated once more by sales of
new products introduced onto the market within the past five years: Last year
these amounted to about €8 billion.
In 2013 alone, the company launched
more than 300 new products on the
market. The patent portfolio also reflects the success of the company’s
research activities. With 1,300 patents filed last year and about 151,000
registrations and intellectual property
rights worldwide, BASF is at the top
of the Patent Asset Index for the fifth
time in succession. CW
Index to Companies
This index gives the starting page for a department or feature with a significant reference to a manufacturer of paint, coatings, adhesives and sealants
Subsidiaries are indexed under their own names.
Ace Hard ware ................................................................................................. 10
AkzoNobel............................................................................... 10, 23, 27, 30, 41
Axalta Coating Systems............................................................................... 8, 10
BASF ......................................................................................................8, 10, 27
Benjamin Moore ............................................................................................. 10
Boyd Coatings Research Co. ........................................................................... 10
Flame Control Coatings .................................................................................. 23
Hempel ........................................................................................................... 27
Master Bonds .................................................................................................. 10
NEI Corp. ....................................................................................................... 23
PPG.......................................................................................... 10, 27, 30, 46, 50
Shaw Pipeline Services..................................................................................... 30
Sherwin Williams ...................................................................................... 10, 30
Valspar...................................................................................................... 10, 23
