CEO Forum
including acquisitions. We completed the purchase of the BASF
Industrial Coatings business in December 2016. We are now a
stronger, more agile company, with excellent brands, a growing
global presence and a solid financial and operational foundation.
Falder: Yes, 2016 saw an increase in revenue in line with our
objectives of organic growth. HMG strive to be a great partner
to our suppliers and to our customers, building overall security
for all of our stakeholders. We continue to grow at the pace
at which we can improve our business and in 2016 we grew
again at around 6 percent. HMG only ever see growth as a by-product of doing a good job. That is the key consistent pillar of
our ethos.
Gläser: 2016 saw our sales increase in the high single digit range
to a total of Euros 211 Million. Currency impact was negligible
in 2016 so these figures represent real growth.
Gorella: The Beckers Group was able to grow substantially
through regional expansion and by gaining market shares. Our
coil coatings segment especially developed very satisfactorily.
The global market situation in the ACE segment appeared somewhat less bullish, and we were able to maintain the level of the
previous year only due to an increase in the second half of 2016.
Kamieth: BASF’s Coatings division experienced robust volume
growth over the prior year. Key driver for the growth was the
positive development of the OEM Coatings business where we
are growing with almost all of our customers – both Western
and Japanese OEMs as well as OEMs from Emerging Markets
such as China.
Michael McGarry: PPG had a successful year in 2016, despite
a more challenging global economic environment and growing
geopolitical uncertainty in many of the regions where we operate.
Thanks to our customers and employees, we were able to continue
to strengthen our paint and coatings business around the world.
Our sales from continuing operations were $14.8 billion,
consistent with the prior year despite an unfavorable foreign
currency translation impact of approximately $400 million, or
about 3 percent. Our full-year sales volumes grew about 1 percent, and our adjusted earnings per diluted share were $5.82,
up 7 percent versus the prior year. We were able to grow our
full-year earnings despite modest and uneven global economic
growth for the second consecutive year.
We accomplished this with another strong year of operational excellence. Our more significant actions included commercialization of new products and technologies that allowed
us to deliver above-market growth in several of our businesses,
continued successful integration and earnings accretion from
prior and current year acquisitions, completion of our previously announced restructuring program, improved productivity
and aggressive cost management.
Shaver: We had a strong year and showed solid progress over
2015. Net sales were up and we were particularly pleased that
our volume and price grew 4. 3 percent. Adjusted net income at-
tributable to Axalta was $269.4 million. Our adjusted EBITDA
of $907.1 million also increased from $867.2 million in 2015.
CW: What areas of the paint and coatings
market represent the most growth
opportunities for your company?
Andersen: We want to grow and gain market share in all the
segments that we are involved in today.
The Protective segment is interesting because it is a relatively unconsolidated market – and it constitutes almost half of
Hempel’s total turnover.
When it comes to the Marine segment, Hempel has gained
market share across the marine market, despite a decreasing
market. We will continue to do that. We have developed the
products that marine customers request, and we are developing
products that will be in demand in the future. At the same time,
we focus on helping our marine customers be more competitive
by helping lower their operating costs.
We are growing in Decorative, but it is a segment in which
our global presence is still limited. We want to change that. Our
global presence in Decorative will increase.
In general, we want to grow on a global scale, but of course
we have a special interest in regions with particularly favourable
opportunities for our development, such as North America and
Asia/China.
Büchner: In 2017 AkzoNobel anticipates positive developments
for EMEA, North America and Asia, improving during the year,
while Latin America is expected to stabilize.
Falder: We continue to operate as a bespoke,
highly technically focused and innovative
business. We simply try and solve customers
problems wherever they exist and there are
plenty of opportunities within our coatings
world to do things better. We are operating with particular emphasis in working with highly functional raw materials and are
part of a consortium working with Graphene and its application
commercially for example.
Gläser: We’re fortunate to be able to see interesting growth potential in all our business sectors. Particularly noteworthy are non-stick
coatings with a focus on the cookware industry, high temperature
resistant coatings for the oven industry and special industrial applications, exterior coatings for the railway industry as well as graphics
coatings for high quality folding carton packaging in the cosmetics
and food industry.
Gorella: While the market for coil coatings is maturing in some
regions, there is still significant growth potential in selected
emerging regions and in addition, we have identified untapped
market opportunities that are currently being investigated.
We also see expansion opportunities in our business lines for
