Features

CEO Forum

This year Coatings World’s CEO Forum features executives from five major coatings companies offering their insights.

Kerry Pianoforte, Editor03.23.15

Coatings World: How did the market for paints and coatings fare overall in 2014?

Ton Büchner: 2014 was challenging, evidenced by negative currency effects for companies consolidating in Euros, a continued lack of growth in Europe and a slowdown in some of the Asian and Latin American economies. Despite this, volumes were up one percent for all business areas. Within our Decorative Paints business we successfully implemented a new operating model in Europe, while our Performance Coatings business introduced a new organizational structure with fewer management layers. During 2014, we built a solid foundation for further growth in 2015.

Charles Bunch: This past year (2014) was another excellent year for the coatings industry. The industry continued to grow, and our customers have placed continuing emphasis on the true value that coatings bring to them and their products in the form of asset protection and decoration.

Shuchao Cao: For a couple of years people have been talki