Based on its recent analysis of the North American protective and marine coatings market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Hempel with the 2013 Growth Excellence Leadership Award. In 2012, Hempel exhibited double-digit revenue growth well in excess of 20 percent and increased its overall market share in North America to 9.5 percent. This is all the more impressive when highlighted against its competitors' revenue growth rates, which are more closely aligned with the base year total market growth rate of 2.1 percent.

Hempel's successful acquisition of Blome International in 2012 complemented its existing product lines, especially for the oil and gas industry. Whereas smaller companies would have expanded their industry focus or become acquisition targets in a struggling economy, Hempel resisted the trend and became more aggressive to grow its market share. Its success stems from getting the sales force of both companies to sell the newly combined offering. The company also focused on fine-tuning operational synergies to promote faster delivery, improve research and development, and reinvent the company to overcome new market challenges.

"The acquisition has been largely successful because of Hempel's ability to increase its sales volume in a number of other industries that Blome International served and in which Hempel lacked a focus, such as pulp and paper, mining, water treatment, and food and beverage," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Roland Heinze. "In order to promote the strengths of its acquisition, Hempel launched its ?Unbeatable Match' marketing campaign, which has been well-received by new and existing customers."

Hempel's total technology offering now includes silicones in marine coatings and polysiloxane in protective coatings, with unique characteristics that give these products a distinct competitive advantage in the market. It also offers more value-added services to boost risk-averse asset owners' acceptance of cutting-edge technologies. For example, it introduced SeaTrend, an onboard software reporting tool for marine applications that provides operational data and improves fuel savings and overall efficiency. With this solution, the company took the industry's first step toward addressing the convergence between chemistry and technical automation.

Instead of expanding into other coating segments that are not the company's main focus, Hempel chooses to strengthen its existing product lines with customized brands such as Hempasil and Hempaxane. The company is already a leading participant in the marine market, and one of its main goals is to double the protective business globally, with an emphasis on North America.

Hempel prides itself on offering the best technical service in the industry and has established a team of highly trained field-service representatives. These representatives leverage the company's historical expertise to develop customized solutions for customers around the globe, allowing end users to directly observe the high-performance benefits of Hempel's newest technologies in some of the industry's harshest environments.

"Externally, the company has built brand recognition by working on high-profile projects and improving product breadth, application expertise, and customer satisfaction," noted Heinze. "Internally, the company has structured itself to increase research and development, supply-chain efficiency, and sales opportunities in order to align its current strategy with future goals."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in capturing the highest compound annual growth rate for the past three years.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.