2023 Stable Year for Coatings Companies

After a busy acquisition period in 2022 for the paint and coatings industry, 2023 was relatively quiet. In 2022, due to acquisitions, we had to remove five companies – Cromology, Karworwag, Tikkurila, Industria Titan and Pintuco – from the list. This year there was only one notable acquisition.

The Sherwin-Williams Company acquired Industria Chimica Adriatica S.p.A. (ICA), an Italian designer, manufacturer and distributor of industrial wood coatings used for kitchen cabinets, furniture and décor, building products, flooring and other specialty applications in December 2022. The acquired business has annual sales of more than €150 million, with sales and operations globally, including production facilities in Italy and Poland, and ICA’s interest in the India-based joint venture, ICA Pidilite. ICA has approximately 600 employees and will become part of the Sherwin-Williams Performance Coatings Group operating segment.

The rest of the rankings were status quo with PPG, Sherwin-Williams, AkzoNobel, Nippon Paint and RPM making up the top five biggest paint and coatings companies globally.

All indications are that our industry is finally recovering from the negative impact of the pandemic.

Tim Knavish, PPG president and chief executive officer, noted in a statement regarding fourth quarter 2022 results: “We continued to make good progress on our focus to achieve full operating margin recovery, as year-over-year earnings improved in both segments despite more acute pandemic-related demand disruptions in China. This earnings improvement was driven by aggregate selling price increases that totaled 19% on a two-year stacked basis, as we remained focused on mitigating the significant cumulative cost inflation incurred the past two years.”

In his 2022 Letter to Shareholders, John Morikis, chairman and CEO of Sherwin-Williams, noted, “The Sherwin-Williams Company delivered record sales, EBITDA and diluted net income per share in 2022. We generated these strong results in a difficult operating environment characterized by relentless inflation, less than optimal raw material availability, armed conflict in Europe and COVID-related lockdowns. Our people refused to be deterred by these challenges and did what they do best – serve our customers.”