Mr. Mazzarella’s appointment marks the first time in 10 years that PCI’s president has been a representative of its raw material suppliers membership.

l BASF Coatings Ag has taken over the entire auto refinish business of Wattyl Ltd. BASF and Wattyl merged their businesses in 1999, founding BASF Wattyl Coatings Pty. Ltd. BASF had controlled 51% of the joint venture operation.
The company will now operate in the Australian market as BASF Coatings Pty. Ltd., and will be the third largest supplier of refinish products in the country, according to BASF. The company will be the exclusive distributor of Wattyl’s Spartan brand and BASF’s Glasurit brand in Australia.
“Our 100% ownership of the company is intended to clearly strengthen our market and technological position in automotive refinishing, which is one of our core competencies,” said Andreas Riehemann, managing director of BASF Coatings Pty. Ltd.
In other news, BASF Coatings AG was honored by Volkswagen AG for outstanding business performance. Among those showing their appreciation at the presentation ceremony were (in photo): Bernd Pischetsrieder (chairman of the board of management of the Volkswagen Group), Rainer Blair (head of the strategic business unit automotive OEM coatings of BASF Coatings AG), Francisco J. Garcia Sanz (purchasing director at Volkswagen), and Erich Schmitt (purchasing director at Audi).