“Automotive refinish is becoming more science and less art”

In general, EMEA and North America are the most established markets and are very stable, with less growth than elsewhere. There’s a decline in volume but nothing alarming; Axalta is very present and strong in these markets. Asia-Pacific is showing big growth. In Latin America, different markets are growing more or less rapidly and Central America shows the biggest growth.

There are increasing similarities between the different markets today and the problems that the workshops are facing and that we’re solving are more or less the same. Similarly, the product launches are also more globalized.

The mix is quite different between EMEA and North America on the one hand, Asia-Pacific and Latin America on the other. North America and EMEA are where the big clients are, generally speaking, whereas Asia-Pacific and Latin America are mainly composed of smaller workshops. North America and especially the US are the markets where the clients are the most consolidated. In EMEA, the concentration is not as strong: it’s a market with more mid-sized workshops and the region isn’t growing very fast, apart from central and eastern Europe, which are still developing. In Asia, China and India are the bright spots. In India, the market is growing strong because the car park is, too. But 60% of the car park is premium and the remaining 40% are old or ageing. These two countries lead the pack for growth and development, but the Middle East is there too. And in Africa, South Africa is the most developed market.

Axalta hasn’t operated in Russia since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, so the perspectives there are absent.

The integrated distribution is mainly a European strategy. Axalta’s acquisitions here are meant to help distributors that are seeking to sell their business, and this is what prompted us to acquire André Koch in Switzerland this year, for example. But apart from Europe and Central America, there are not many integrated distributors. We focus and rely on our partner distributors

Axalta Irus Mix, our fully automated mix machine, and Axalta Nimbus, our advanced cloud-based platform for refinish customers, were first launched in EMEA and North America and we want to move fast, with an objective of getting 80% of our end users equipped as soon as possible, while at the same time introducing these new technologies to the other markets.

Productivity is an ongoing topic. Reducing carbon footprint and decreasing energy consumption are, too. But there’s another theme on which our clients are very focused: skills gap and workforce shortages. It’s a problem everywhere in the world. We’ve been able to initiate a change of mindset linked to the normal evolution of our industry: it’s more science and less art. This is where automation in the body shop comes in, with things like Axalta Irus Mix, Axalta Irus Scan and Axalta Nimbus. You can press a button and go do something else. We see people realising the benefits, and being less resistant to change, because there is awareness that the more repeatable solutions are the most profitable. All the coatings manufacturers are facing these same questions from workshops who all have similar needs.