Coatings World - March 2017

Railway, Domestic Appliances, and Automotive Plastics Exterior and are actively looking for add-on acquisitions to expand our segments and gain new technologies and approvals.

Kamieth: To ensure profitable growth in all of our businesses, we have a clear strategy to also focus on emerging markets. The markets in China and ASEAN play an important role. In 2016, we acquired Guangdong Yinfan Chemistry to broaden our automotive refinish portfolio in Asia-Pacific. The groundbreaking for our newest automotive coatings plant in Shanghai, China, and the expansion of production capacity in Thailand are further examples of our strategic investments in emerging markets.

McGarry: We continue to see strong growth opportunities in many of the markets that we serve. From automotive and industrial, to aerospace and packaging, there continues to be strong demand from customers for innovative paint and coatings products and processes.

Shaver: We see opportunities in each of our end-markets. In
the refinish business in North America, for example, and where
industry consolidation continues, we focused on offering cus-
tomers a range of top quality products that met the needs of
their shops and also supported their environmental goals. Our
Industrial business is excited about growth opportunities and
our three recent acquisitions of strong industrial paint suppliers
– Dura Coat in coil and Ellis Paint and Century Paint with their
broad product lines – will enable us to capture new business and
leverage their technologies with ours. The industrial business is
poised to take advantage of infrastructure growth in emerging
markets in particular. China remains solid for the opportuni-
ties it provides across a range of infrastructure related coating
applications from Nap-Gard® for oil and gas and Alesta for
architectural applications to Voltatex® for energy insulation
needs. India also presents a number of opportunities given its
growing GDP. In India, we’re mid-way through construction of
an expanded production facility that will supply transportation
OEMs with coatings to keep pace with the anticipated growth
in car sales.

CW: What is your business strategy for
growth in 2017 and beyond?

Andersen: We have one focus. We have to execute and deliver on the objectives of our 2020 strategy Journey to Excellence, which almost exclusively has to do with us becoming excellent in relation to our solutions, our own efficiency and not least our increased focus on our customers. We want to continue to grow faster than the market, and these focus areas will contribute to that.