Covered Winter 2022

UK Coatings industry celebrates outstanding performance at BCF’s 2022 Awards coatings.org.uk

Associate

British

Federation Ltd Spectra House, Westwood Way Westwood Business Park Coventry, CV4 8HS

Email: info@bcf.co.uk Website: coatings.org.uk Telephone: 02476 935 390 Registered in England 745398

EDITORIAL

By Tom Bowtell Chief Executive Officer of the BCF

As we head towards Christmas and the end of another turbulent year, we do so with a sense of unease about how things will pan out in the UK in 2023 and beyond.

However, after the last edition of Covered in the summer, I’d told myself that this edition would be more upbeat, and I wouldn’t drone on about the gloomy stuff going on out there which everyone knows about already.

We had some fantastic news just before going to print that the European Court of Justice has annulled the Titanium Dioxide classifcation - ruling that the European Commission had made ‘manifest errors’, something industry has been saying for more than 7 years! It is also good news that the HSE had decided to delay its biocide approval programme within the new GB Biocides Product Regulation (BPR) by 5 years – hence avoiding the cliff edge we’d warned about at the end of 2022. Both of these cases show the importance of industry working together through the BCF and other associations to argue for fair and proportionate regulation.

Another big positive for me is the setting up of BCF’s new Diversity and Inclusion Committee, chaired by Lisa Kelly from BASF, with vice chair Emma Stark from Sherwin-Williams. Sharon Harte from Dacrylate is another prominent senior leader on the group, and an important link to the BCF’s Board of Directors. Our sector has some work to do in this area, and the committee have just finished a survey to find out member views. I’m not in favour

of simply manipulating our board make up to tick a box – I’d much rather we help encourage and stimulate the members to work on their own diversity, which will in time feed through to the make up of the senior leaders in the industry in the boardroom. You can read about the committee on page 24.

We report on the latest Coatings Care data for 2021 operations on page 21, which includes the lowest accident rate on record since we began counting in 1996. I’m really keen all major UK manufacturing sites are on the programme as we continue to work on our Net Zero Roadmap in 2023, so if you’re not, we’ll come looking for you! It’s free to take part and gives you some great benchmarking data.

I’m hugely proud of the BCF team, and all they do to support you. We’ve had Emily Bradley on maternity leave since January, and I’m delighted to report she’ll be back with us at the end of January 2023. I’d like to thank Wayne Smith and James Highcock for their support over this period, and also to Ciara Dempsey and David Park who have had to take on more responsibility in Emily’s absence. In addition, Ciara has had to coordinate the overall efforts and resources of the regulatory team, including Sam Simplay, who has settled in really well this year.

The back office, marketing and membership teams are also doing an amazing job. As well as sending out over 1,000 member communications this year, and coordinating over 50 BCF member

meetings, face-to-face and virtual, they have seamlessly introduced a fantastic new website and CRM system in September. Those who have had a good look agree it’s a real upgrade on where we were. As you’ll know, these projects take a huge amount of time and resource, and I’m indebted to the team for delivering on this for the members.

For those that were there, the BCF Awards in October was a really positive, uplifting and fun evening, and I think Paul Sinha (aka Sinnerman from The Chase) was a fantastic host. Taking time out from the day-to-day doom and gloom to celebrate the industry’s success was something I really enjoyed. Well done again to all our shortlisted finalists and winners, who are recognised on pages 12 to 17.

Finally, it’s been a good year for BCF’s finances – we’ve managed to sell off our legacy pension scheme to Aviva, just in time before Liz Truss got in and messed everything up. This means going forward we will stop paying scheme administration and deficit repayment fees. The board have agreed we use some of this to hire a third Regulatory Affairs Manager to work alongside Ciara and Emily, to bolster the regulatory team to help support members with both EU and UK regulatory changes. We continue to fight for a less burdensome, more proportionate and EU aligned chemicals regulatory system in the UK and we are making headway with this on UK REACH. All the changes in Government have hardly helped, but we are hopeful that the more time goes by, the more the Government will see sense.

Praying for boring:

David Park, Public Affairs Manager

The word ‘unprecedented’ has been worn out over the past six years. But trying to describe the last few months in politics is difficult without it. We have seen 80 (yes, eight zero) Ministers resign or be sacked since the start of 2022 and since July we have had three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors, and a ridiculous number of Cabinet post changes: some mayflies have lived longer than Grant Shapps lasted as Home Secretary. In searching for alternatives, we could opt for quoting Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It, and use ‘omnishambles’, but that doesn’t do it justice. The Collins Dictionary word of the Year was ‘Permacrisis’, which perhaps is closer to the mark. At the end of the day, the period has been chaotic, disrupting and frankly embarrassing: we can only hope that the situation now stabilises.

We certainly need some stability. Having navigated the Scylla of Brexit and the Charybdis of Covid, businesses had been waiting for a lull in the storm to plan, prepare, invest, and grow. Yet the raw materials crisis has continued, abetted by the fallout from the Ukraine war, which is also helping to drive a worldwide energy crisis.

What can we expect to see happen over the coming months?

By the time you read this article, the Autumn Statement will have taken place. It is being trailed as a reaction to the short-lived Truss/ Kwarteng ‘dash for growth’ and seems likely to include public spending cuts and some tax increases to soothe the markets. How deep those cuts will be and where they will fall will be a difficult balance of politics and economics. However, it seems that there will be some return to the Osbornean style of austerity.

We still need to work closely - and increasingly urgently - with Defra, to reform the UK REACH legislation. As we have stated on many occasions before, UK REACH as currently constituted is overly burdensome and costly for businesses. It also puts huge strain on the limited resources of the UK regulators. We are

seeking a priority meeting with the latest Secretary of State for the Environment, Therese Coffey, and her junior Minister Rebecca Pow, who is also a returner to the Department, to discuss REACH and plans for a UK Chemicals Strategy. Pow will also take on the waste and recycling, and air quality briefs, so we will need to work closely with her as well on issues like PaintCare, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging, and VOCs.

There is another new Secretary of State for Business (the fifth since I started working for BCF in January 2020) in the form of Grant Shapps. As I write, we still do not know which of his Ministerial team will have responsibility for industry and chemicals. We will need to work closely with BEIS to help us win our argument with Defra on REACH, but in the near-term also on issues to do with energy cost support for members. Of course, it is not just costs that are important but energy supply. National Grid has been ‘rolling the pitch’ on the prospect of blackouts over the winter. We are, therefore, talking to BEIS to explain particular issues that scenario would create for BCF’s members – and thus their customers - and to establish what plans, if any, are in place to prevent or mitigate such an eventuality.

Larry the cat Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office Seen through five Prime Ministers

Some possible good news might soon emerge from discussions to amend the Northern Ireland Protocol, which I know is making life difficult for many members. Recent press reports are quite encouraging with new systems being proposed and tested and there is a general sense that a solution might not be far off. We have our fingers crossed on this point.

That probably then takes us up to next Spring’s Budget, which will be the last real opportunity for the Chancellor to introduce measures that will be felt before the last date a General Election can be held, which is January 2025. There had been promises of reforms next year to R&D tax credits, or taxes on capital investment, in order to try and assist businesses. Whether this will be delivered or not is now uncertain. Room for giveaways currently looks limited in the extreme.

It is also possible that there will be further political implosions, with yet more Ministerial churn. Should pressure build on Rishi Sunak to a politically fatal extent, it seems very unlikely the constitution could bear yet another switch of Prime Minister without recourse to an election. Of course, he may decide to go for an early election of his own accord should circumstances offer a winning opportunity, although the most likely scenario is still an election called sometime in 2024. Be that as it may, BCF has also already been keeping all bases covered and has been speaking with the relevant Opposition spokespeople to make sure our concerns and needs are properly communicated.

To be honest, from BCF’s perspective, we are praying for boring over the next few months. Boring will allow time for Ministers to learn their briefs, for issues like REACH to be addressed, and for other problems like the NI Protocol to be hopefully improved. We can but hope…

UK ecomonic outlook for 2023 and beyond

With the chancellor’s autumn statement now complete and the accompanying Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic and fiscal outlook report now assuming a pivotal role we summarise below the main findings of the latest OBR report.

In terms of the key measure of GDP growth, Q3 this year showed a fall of 0.2% on the previous quarter (although still being up 2.1% on this time last year) and the expectation is that Q4 will see a similar decrease. For 2022 as a whole, better outcomes in the first half of the year mean the last year will still be about 4% higher than in 2021. However, Q1 2023 is expected to see the start of a prolonged recession with quarterly output decreases continuing until the end of March 2024 and with 2023 in total forecast to see a fall in annual GDP of -1.4%. The bottom of the downturn is expected to be reached in Q2 when the fall in GDP will reach a low point of -1.9% before easing to -1.6% in Q3 and -1.1% in Q4 2023. The downturn is forecast to continue into Q1 2024 with growth down -0.2% but Q2 is predicted to see an improvement of 1.0% with the year in total ending up 1.3% higher. Thereafter, the OBR expect annual growth to be 2.6% in 2025 and 2.7% in 2026.

In all cases, these forecasts are well below the previous predictions by the OBR back in March this year, with the earlier forecast of 1.8% growth for 2023 being sharply downgraded in the latest report to a fall of -1.4%.

For comparison purposes, the financial crisis of 2008/2009 (sometimes referred to as the great recession due to its longevity and depth) showed a decline in GDP of -4.2%

at its low point while the recession of the early 1990s showed GDP down -1.2% in 1991. More recently, the policy induced recession resulting from the 2020 pandemic saw GDP crash by -9.1% before recovering strongly as the economy re-opened in 2021 and early 2022.

So, in summary the immediate outlook for 2023 is grim although not as bad as 2008/2009 and only slightly worse than the early 1990s but with better news on the horizon for 2024 and beyond. Having said this, much will depend on the forecasts coming good and nothing can be taken for granted with many factors being highly uncertain. Not least of these is the outlook for inflation, energy prices and the uncertainties of the continuing war in Ukraine which will all weigh heavily on the world economy and our industry.

Consumer price inflation is now at a 40 year high of 11% for the latest month of October and the current year is expected to see an increase of 9.1% before falling back to 7.4% in 2023 as a whole. By Q4 2023 inflation is expected to be down to 3.8%, falling to just 0.4% 6 months later by Q2 2024, then followed by the rare spectacle of two years of negative inflation through to mid-2026.

Looking at the other key measure affecting the UK economy, and especially the decorative paint market, the recent surge in interest rates since March this year confirms that the ultra-low rates of the last ten years are now clearly well and truly behind us with typical mortgage rates of about 4.5% for 2023 and 5% thereafter likely to be the new normal going forward. The OBR forecast that this will result in a fall in average house prices of about 9% from current peak levels between now and the end of Q3 2024. The impact of this is unclear, but usually lower prices result in reduced activity including lower new housing starts by builders, lower transactions and reduced activity across the board.

John Dixon

Whittle Industry Data

HSE gives industry 5 year extension on biocides

In the past few editions of Covered we have spent a lot of time detailing our talks with the UK Government on the subject of UK REACH. However, we have not been solely focussed on that topic as we know that other post-EU chemicals regulations will affect many, or probably most, of our members to an almost equal extent as REACH.

Accordingly, we have also been pushing Government to take action on biocides. BCF has led on arranging two specific meetings, along with other representatives of the chemicals sector, with senior members of the HSE to explore their plans for biocides in the UK. In the first, we asked the HSE to set out their general plans for how the UK’s independent regulatory regime would look as regards biocides. In the second meeting we raised more specific issues affecting members, including the time being taken to make decisions in the UK, as well as the need to ensure that suitable active substances remained available for future use in members’ products, especially given that number has been eroded steadily in recent years.

We have recently received what we think is good news for members. The HSE has informed us that the law for biocidal products is going to be amended, introducing temporary changes to GB biocides statutory application processing times. Following the end of the EU exit transition period, businesses were required to resubmit product applications to HSE by various deadlines, the first of which would have been the end of this year. However, in the HSE’s own words:

The new law is planned to come into force on 31 December 2022, subject to parliamentary procedures.

Ultimately, this means that biocidal products on the market in GB awaiting decision on their application to remain there legally until they are processed by HSE. After 5 years the statutory deadline will revert to the existing length.

This is not perfect – yet another case of kicking the can down the road to some degree. However, it does give certainty and will mean members can be sure they can continue to operate with their current suite of products for the next five years.

“Due to the large number of resubmissions received, a new law is being introduced in GB to temporarily extend the statutory deadlines for processing product applications under the GB Biocidal Products Regulation for a period of up to 5 years.”

TiO2 COURT CASE: European Court of Justice annuls the carcinogenic harmonised classification

Just as we were going to print, we got the news that the Titanium Dioxide Manufacturer’s Association (TDMA) – with BCF, CEPE and the American Coatings Association as interveners supporting the case on behalf of the coatings industry – have won the Titanium Dioxide court case at the European Court of Justice against the European Commission. This is a battle that industry has been fighting as its number one priority since March 2015, when the French authorities first tabled their concerns that TiO2 was a carcinogenic substance.

We have always argued that titanium dioxide is an inert pigment, which is a critical substance for paints, coatings and printing inks, and does not have any alternatives. We have also always argued that the one scientific study that supported the classification decision was not sound - something the judge agreed with, stating that the Commission made a ‘manifest error’ on the reliability and acceptability of the study on which the classification was based. The press release from the European Court of Justice also states that the decision to classify TiO2 ‘infringed the criterion according to which that classification can relate only to a substance that has the intrinsic property to cause cancer’. The importance of this result in terms of setting a precedent for other poorly soluble low toxicity particles cannot be underestimated – we had outlined a further 300 substances that would have potentially been subject to the precedent of the TiO2 classification.

We will inform members of what action they need to take as a result of the annulment of the TiO2 classification in due course. Most importantly we will be talking to the Health and Safety Executive to establish if the UK will recognise the European Court’s decision and make the equivalent GB CLP changes to TiO2 in the UK.

Tom Bowtell CEO of BCF

There was a report published earlier this year that claimed that paint is the largest source of microplastic leakage into our oceans – more than car tyre dust, plastic pellets and fibres from textiles put together. This led to a lot of raised eyebrows in our sector, given that most reports we’d previously seen estimated paint’s contribution to microplastics pollution to be between 10 and 20%. Clearly our sector does have an impact, but is paint really a bigger problem than car tyre dust and textiles?

This new report claimed paint creates 58% of the world’s microplastics – it was a study funded by the European Commission, called Plastic Paint by Swiss based environmental NGO Environmental Action. So, is this report credible?

Well, it is somewhat timely that the World Coatings Council’s Secretariat, the American Coatings Association (ACA), has recently published a Literature Review aimed at establishing the state of the science and available data on microplastics generated by paints and coatings.

The ACA literature search identified and analysed 36 key documents, to produce a summary of the current scientific state of knowledge on paints and coatings related microplastics.

Many of these reports therefore employ a range of assumptions regarding paint degradation rates and removal practices in order to estimate the contribution of paint. With the exception of the EA report referred to above, the range of paint’s contribution to microplastics pollution is actually estimated to be between 9.6% and 21%.

CEPE, the European Paint Association, has written to the European Commission to explain the many flaws in the assumptions made in the EA report, which the authors themselves admit is an outlier in terms of its conclusions in positioning the size of the impact of paint compared to other sources of microplastics. It is of course critical that conclusions in publication and discussion apportioning responsibility on any industry be based on scientifically substantiated data and rigorous real-world study.

However, we cannot hide from the fact that we are part of the problem, and the European Commission has the paint industry in its sights when looking at future regulations to control microplastic leakage.

It is a fact that road marking and anti-fouling coatings will end up in the marine environment. To some extent other exterior coatings will too, as will a small percentage of decorative paint when paint brushes and rollers are washed in water. There are things we can do as consumers to reduce the water used in this process and the amount of paint that goes down the drain. We are currently working on a new video to get this message across to the public. The same is true when people re-paint their boats, and BCF have a campaign to educate boat owners called the Protect, Collect and Dispose Antifouling Initiative. One of the aims of the campaign is to work to prevent the release of paint flakes when sanding into the marine environment.

Going back to the Literature Review conducted by World Coatings Council, it is clear there is limited knowledge on the source, environmental contribution, environmental and human health risks, and impact in wastewater from paint-related microplastics. If we are to defend ourselves, we need to build credible data on what impact we are having. I am pleased to say that CEPE are currently working on several studies for both masonry paint and anti-fouling paint.

In conclusion, paint isn’t the largest contributor of microplastics in the marine environment, but we do have some impact, so should not be complacent. In my role as the current President of the World Coatings Council, I will be ensuring we get the right messages out there so we can better defend ourselves. You can read more about BCF’s view of the topic of microplastics in paint via the FAQ section of BCF’s new website, which also links to the World Coatings Council paper - it includes a lot more detail than I could cover here.

The short conclusion is that there is simply no real data quantifying the contribution of paint to microplastics pollution.

Celebrating industry excellence at the 2022 BCF Awards

11 winners were recognised for their outstanding achievements across all areas of the UK coatings industry

The audience was entertained by comedian and The Chase star Paul Sinha

The winners of the British Coatings Federation (BCF) Awards 2022 were announced on 13th October at the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club. Over 150 delegates were there to watch Paul Sinha (Sinnerman from ITV’s the Chase) hand out the awards over 10 categories.

Tom Bowtell, BCF Chief Executive said:

The evening opened with the Sustainable Innovation Awards, split into Manufacturer and Supplier categories due to the record number of entries. The Sustainable Innovation Manufacturer Award was won by BASF for AGILIS, and the Sustainable Innovation Supplier Award was presented to Hexigone Inhibitors for

The sustainability theme carried on through the evening with the Coatings Care Progress Award, and the Coatings Care Overall Best Performer Award. The Progress Award was given to joint winners Steyport and PPG Industrial Coatings, and Overall Best Performer was awarded to Farrow & Ball. The Corporate Social Responsibility Award was taken home by AkzoNobel for their True Colours Community Fund initiative.

The Customer Service Award was presented to Sherwin Williams Consumer Brands Group. For Marketing Campaign of the Year, it was the ‘Dulux Simply Refresh, with Changing Rooms’ campaign that took home the award for AkzoNobel.

The evening concluded by celebrating outstanding individual talent in the industry, recognised in the Apprentice of the Year Award, won by Andrew Roser from AkzoNobel; Young Leader of the Year Award, won by Emma Porter from hubergroup UK and Student of the Year Award, which saw Sam Gumbley from

“Given the hugely challenging times our industry is facing, it was great to come together face to face and celebrate the many achievements of our member companies over the last 12 months. It is also exciting to see so much young talent in our sector, demonstrated particularly in our Apprentice of the Year and Young Leader of the Year categories. Many congratulations to all those who were shortlisted, but especially to the

The BCF would like to thank our Award sponsors for their support:

Award winners

Alongside the low product carbon footprint and low VOC emissions, the judges particularly liked the excellent process efficiency of this 3-layer system with its short application and flash-off times, leading to lower energy consumption and increased numbers of repairs per day. Consequently, the judges were unanimous in awarding BASF as this year’s winner.

Hexigone’s winning entry is an excellent example of collaboration between academic research and industry to develop technology and commercialise it globally. The judges were also impressed that the product is manufactured using 50% of the landfill waste-stream from another process, recycling all waste products and using solar PV electricity in it manufacture.

Sustainable Innovation Manufacturer Award 2022

AGILIS Sponsored by Tronox

Sustainable Innovation Supplier Award 2022

Intelli-ion®

winners 2022

Throughout Covid, AkzoNobel they maintained a comprehensive CSR programme clearly immersed and invested in the local community by fundraising and providing aid to the vulnerable in times of crisis. It was also appreciated there is a plan to further develop and continue this initiative. This activity is completely aligned with the company’s CSR strategy.

This campaign impressed the judges in many ways; from the branding to the message to the integrated marketing strategy. Based on a very thorough piece of consumer research, this product launch and creative communication campaign successfully targeted younger consumers who have never decorated. This product launch produced very strong results on all measures well above target.

Corporate Social Responsibility Award 2022 True Colours Community Fund

Marketing Campaign of the Year Award 2022 Dulux Simply Refresh, with Changing Rooms

Sponsored by GDB International

Customer Service Award 2022

Consumer Brands Group Sponsored by Biocote

Sherwin-Williams was chosen based on their story about turning a business culture around in the middle of Covid, enabling them to deliver some proper, grownup customer experiences supported by a passionate leader.

Steyport used less energy and produced less waste per tonne of production. The rate of recycling doubled from year-to-year, while VOC emissions were also lower.

Award winners

Coatings

PPG also decreased their energy use per tonne of production and reduced VOC emissions. The proportion of waste sent to landfill reduced significantly whilst recycling rates increased.

Participants of the Coatings Care programme demonstrate a commitment to creating a safer, more sustainable and efficient industry.

Farrow and Ball’s energy use per tonne of production was well below the industry average. The site had zero waste to landfill, and waste recycling rates were well above average. The site remained below the sector average for solvents purchased and VOC emissions. There were no injuries causing absence from work or no dangerous occurrences recorded.

Coatings Care Progress Award 2022

Sponsored by The Paint Foundation

Care Overall Best Performer Award 2022

Blackburn Runcorn

winners 2022

Apprentice of the Year Award 2022 Andrew Roser Sponsored

Sam won the BCF Student of the Year Award for his consistently high-quality work and fantastic work ethic. Sam has worked his way up through to the foundation degree level learning with BCF’s Coatings Training Institute.

This year’s winner Andrew demonstrated how he benefited from his apprenticeship and went further by setting up a development programme for his colleagues, and is now their mentor.

Emma showed exceptional dedication to the industry and her role. She is dynamic, ambitious and has already achieved impressive things by such a young age.

by Stort Chemicals

Student of the Year Award 2022 Sam Gumbley Sponsored by Synthomer

Young Leader of the Year Award 2022 Emma Porter Sponsored by Fenton Packaging

MAY 25

BCF Events 2023

BCF Annual Conference and Industry dinner

Radisson Blu Hotel, East Midlands Airport

The BCF Annual Conference brings together industry experts to speak on key issues affecting the sector.

BCF Charity Cycle

BCF offices, Coventry

The third BCF Charity Cycle: Ride Warwickshire, raising money and awareness for defibrillator charity The Community Heartbeat Trust.

BCF Awards

The Grand Hotel,

Birmingham

The 13th annual BCF Awards, which celebrates excellence and recognises innovation in the UK coatings industry.

First global Sustainability Report published

BCF’s Tom Bowtell officially launched the first ever World Coatings Council’s Sustainability Report for the global paints and coatings industry at the Coatings Summit in Miami on December 6th.

The report sets out to demonstrate how the paints and coatings industry contributes to the nine most important United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to the coatings industry. This work started back in February 2020, at an interactive World Coatings Council sustainability workshop in Brazil.

This comprehensive report, independently produced by German sustainability consultants :response, sets out for each of the nine selected SDGs which targets are applicable for coatings, and how the industry contributes.

For example, SDG number three, Good health and well-being. The most relevant SDG3 target is 3.9: “By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination”. The coatings industry has examples of low VOC coatings, the global alliance to eliminate lead paint, anti-microbial paint in hospitals and biocidal protection as proof points for this SDG.

This work has also led to the creation of a KPI toolkit, for members of WCC associations. This includes 22 indicators covering the nine selected SDGs, and a core set of 11 essential indicators. These will be shared with BCF members in due course.

Commenting on the report, Tom Bowtell, BCF’s CEO and current President of the World Coatings Council said “I’m thrilled we’ve got the inaugural WCC Sustainability report launched. Paints and coatings contribution to sustainability is really significant, but often overlooked. This new report will help shine a light on our importance to society. However, we still have work to do, so mustn’t be complacent”.

The Council will plan how to follow up on this excellent foundation report at the next WCC annual meeting in Istanbul in March 2023.

World Coatings Council Sustainability Principles

1. Contributing to value creation worldwide through long-term economic performance

Committing to ethical business practices and responsibility throughout the supply chain

Providing good employment and ensuring a safe workplace

Producing and developing safe and sustainable products

Supporting education for STEM and applied sustainability

Engaging with stakeholders and local communities

Working to maximize efficiency and reduce the impact of manufacturing processes

R

Preparing for Launch

Reprocessing

The focus this period has been on optimising the collection routes and particularly routes for recycling of the collected paint. Recognising the shortage of capacity to remanufacture leftover paint in the UK in the short term, a review of routes used across the world has been undertaken and opportunities identified to start up the programme in the UK. Routes used for recycling of left over paint at the launch of the programme may need to be very different to the final desired state.

Discussions are underway with UK reprocessors and companies from the USA and Ireland where left over paint is reprocessed at scale.

Routes and operators have now been identified for recycling of the packaging collected through PaintCare with metal containers being sent for recycle and plastic paint containers being sent for recycling back into new plastic paint containers.

Carbon Footprint

As part of the decision making on which routes to use in reprocessing leftover paint, a report on the carbon footprint of the various routes has been commissioned from Resource Futures. This work will estimate the carbon footprint of the options under consideration including that of the current outcomes for left over paint. It will also assess the carbon footprint of the proposed collection process.

Regulation

Further work with Defra and the Environment Agency has resulted in an in-principle agreement that would allow collection points for both water based and solvent based paints to be provided without having to have them permitted and registered as waste collection points subject to limits of material being stored at any one point. This is a significant step forward allowing easy set up of leftover paint collection points across the country.

Stakeholders

There is now a frequent and increasing dialogue with local authorities and HWRCs who want to start up with PaintCare now and work is underway to develop the implementation plan with appropriate sites. There is also high interest from retailers.

RWM and Let’s Recycle Live Exhibition

PaintCare had a stand at the recent RWM and Let’s Recycle Live Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham. This is the leading exhibition for those involved in the waste and resource recovery industry and PaintCare exhibited to gauge interest in and opportunity for PaintCare within the sector.

Interest in the programme and stand was higher than expected resulting in two busy days. Visitors fell broadly into three categories. Local Authorities and HWRC managers who universally wanted to be involved in the programme. Waste companies ranging from the national waste and resource recovery companies to local waste collectors. They all collect paint as part of their business and were interested in the programme. The final category was facility and site managers ranging from housing associations, housebuilders, factory managers to film studios and shopping centres. All have paint leftover after their projects or clients projects which is difficult and expensive to dispose of and they saw potential value in PaintCare to them.

Next steps

• Stakeholder engagement

• Development of implementation and final launch plan

• Presentation of fully costed implementation plan to BCF Board in February 2023

• Phase 1 rollout early 2024

Dr Steve Snaith BCF Consultant

Visit

Record low levels of accidents in manufacturing

2021 results

Key findings

Overall results paint a mixed picture, with several indicators influenced by the drop in decorative coatings volume in 2021, after the peak year of 2020 during Covid.

• Accident rates at sites fell to record-low levels.

• Energy use increased 8% compared to the previous year, but remained below the levels seen prior to 2020.

• Waste disposal was up 14%, in part due to clearing waste accumulated during the lockdown periods in 2020, and overall disposal rates were lower than in 2019.

• While the amount of organic solvents purchased by participating companies was only slightly higher than in 2020, VOC emissions increased significantly as sites switched production from decorative paints, back to industrial coatings in 2021. Despite the increase, emissions remained below the levels seen in 2017 to 2019, and 2020 is proving to be an exceptional year.

• The importance of having a highly skilled and safe workforce was shown by the increasing number of companies providing formal training schemes and apprenticeships.

Home Office reevaluate GBL and BDO

Ciara Dempsey Regulatory Affairs Manager

Gamma butyrolactone (GBL) is an industrial solvent used in some printing inks and other specialist coatings. The printing inks are used in a wide variety of applications, including security cards, medical devices and automotive parts.

On 15th December 2021, a legislative proposal was laid before Parliament to strengthen controls on these substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act. These controls included a strict licensing regime for legitimate industrial uses. While the BCF supported the move to control the substance more effectively, it became clear that there were significant unintended consequences as a result of this change. It meant that the new licensing requirements would not only affect our members (who were using the substance to manufacture printing inks or other coatings) but also extend to their customers who were using the printing inks or mixtures containing GBL. The BCF and other associations advocated for the Government to change the rules to put printing inks and other industrial mixtures containing GBL outside of the scope of the licence requirement.

The Home Office’s own impact assessment had drastically underestimated the number of companies that would have been affected by the legislation. In addition, there was a very short transition period which meant that companies had very little time to not only apply for a licence, but also to put in place the increased security and monitoring processes in place. For many companies, the timeline also fell drastically short of the time required to develop, validate, and introduce new products that were GBL-free.

The Home Office listened to industry, and in March this year informed us that they were looking at ways to mitigate the impact of the legislation. In the end, they decided to go back to the drawing board and new legislation is expected in 2023. The government intends to retain the requirement for companies handling ‘neat’ GBL to obtain a licence. However, the intention is to put the majority of legitimate uses of mixtures outside the scope. The BCF is supportive of this approach, and we have been liaising with the Home Office and the relevant members on some of the finer details. These informal discussions are vital to informing and influencing the government at this early stage, prior to the formal public consultation that is due to take place (timing currently unclear). It is crucial that the legislation strikes the right balance between allowing legitimate industrial uses to continue, without creating loopholes that could be exploited by criminals. This has formed the basis of the BCF’s advocacy on this issue, and will continue to do so.

Future-proofing Coatings: Safe and Sustainable by Design

BCF’s latest technical seminar, which took place on 5th September, saw over 80 attendees gain an understanding of the direction of travel of the ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design’ policies and gain an insight into the innovative solutions that coatings suppliers are working towards. There were opportunities for members to feed into the discussion, hosting a series of both individual and panel speaker sessions which facilitated Q&As from the audience.

Speakers

Ann Dierckx, Director of Sustainability at Cefic

Mary Tomlinson, Head of Chemicals Strategy and Megan Thomsett, Senior Scientist, Chemicals Strategy, Defra

Heather McFarlane, Senior Project Manager, Fidra

Tony Heslop, Senior Sustainability Manager, BASF

Dr Neil Hunt, Managing Regulatory Consultant, Yordas Thor Specialities UK - Tim Hadingham Microban - James Rapley Lanxess - Monika Lamoratta

Venator - Dr Robert Bird Tronox - Steve Hollins Imerys - Anabelle Elton-Legrix Nordmann - Andrea Clavis

TotalEnergiesChristophe Hein BASF - Daniel von Nessen Solvents Industry AssociationAndrew Norman Banner ChemicalsGal Maller

Chaired by our own Tom Bowtell, the event was BCF’s first hybrid seminar, utilising AV systems in order to facilitate mixed in-person and virtual panel sessions. This allowed the audience to not only interact with speakers in the room, but also with speakers around the world, in America, Germany and the Netherlands to name a few, in order to hear from the best of the industry’s sustainability experts.

Sponsored by:

Q&A with Chair of BCF’s D&I Committee

Tell us about the role you have at BASF

My main role as Head of BTC UK & Ireland, which I have held for the last 6 years is a very varied and exciting role, no two days are ever the same. BTC is the pan European sales organisation for BASF SE and our vast product range focussed on speciality chemicals is sold to many industries including coatings.

I have also, for a numbers of years now, been involved in many of BASFs D&I activities, sponsoring their Gender Action Group in the UK, working on the BASF EMEA D&I team, and now one of the sponsors of BTC Europe’s Core Culture Group. It’s a huge passion of mine and so I was delighted to be offered the chance to get involved with BCF on this topic.

How has diversity played a role in your career development?

When I started my career in the Chemical Industry a little over thirty years ago, D&I just wasn’t a topic, and the industry was, and to some extent still is, very male dominated. Many times, I found myself in situations as the only female and often faced bias. I really missed visible role models, seeing someone like me, and aspiring to be like them. Many of the people above me were male, but I was lucky enough at various pivotal points in my career to find allies in some of them. They championed me and helped me believe that I could develop into a senior role.

I am really happy that I can now at least try to influence the diversity in our industry more in the future.

What’s the background to BCF’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and how will you approach your role as chair?

The Coatings industry plays a significant role in the UK economy,

Lisa Kelly

Lisa Kelly is the head of BASF’s distribution business in the UK, BTC. As a senior leader in the coatings industry, BCF were delighted when Lisa agreed to be the first chair of BCF’s new Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

employing over 300,000 people in the entire value chain. Ensuring it attracts the best and most diverse talent in the future will be vital to its success. The D&I Committee wants to offer support to BCF members to embrace D&I in their organisations. Offering inclusive and flexible workplace cultures will be an important factor in attracting the best talent. We hope to help our members achieve this.

As the first chair of the committee, we want to firstly understand what our members need in order to help

them on this journey, then we will put a framework in place to support their goals.

What are your aspirations for the future of D&I in the coatings industry?

The business case for D&I is absolutely clear, those companies who are diverse and have an inclusive culture are more successful. It’s about diversity of thought, valuing opinions and believing that everyone no matter what their background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality or neurodiversity can contribute to the industry’s collective success.

The Coatings industry is a great place to be and will play a vital role in the journey towards greater sustainability and net zero by 2050. Diversity of thought will naturally lead to a creative environment to help the industry work towards these goals.

What role does BCF’s board of directors have to play in D&I?

The board can play a vital role in championing D&I. Firstly they can share the initiatives from the D&I committee with their own organisations to increase the diversity in their own workplaces and in the industry generally.

Secondly, the BCF board lacks diversity. It is currently very male dominated, only 1 female out of 25 members. We would really like to encourage more diversity on the board, so we can showcase diverse role models and bring in more diversity of thought. Our member organisations can really help us achieve this goal.

Finally, what advice would you give a business for initiating a diversity and inclusion programme?

Just make a start, be curious, open minded and willing to learn.

Get all your leaders on board, make a commitment and share your aspirations with your employees. Measure what you can, keep taking small steps and don’t expect big changes to happen overnight.

Keep talking and sharing with your networks so you can learn from others, or in other words, copy with pride!

New BCF website creates platform to raise industry profile

Modified FAQs help consumers with queries as well as more detailed resources on technical matters for members. As one of BCF’s most popular pages sitewide year-on-year, the FAQs are a key knowledge source for consumers looking for sector-specific information, particularly on DIY projects.

The site also creates style and space to allow the BCF to better communicate its ongoing campaigning work on behalf of the coatings sector. The new website structure includes dedicated web pages on all current key issues facing the industry, which keeps members and consumers updated with the latest information on each subject.

Tom Bowtell, BCF Chief Executive Officer, said of the new website: “After so much work this year on building the new website from the team, I’m incredibly pleased to see this take shape and to finally share with our membership. This has been a collaborative effort from all the staff at BCF to deliver the best experience possible for our members and best communicate our value to our stakeholders and consumers”.

To view our new website, please visit:

Former BCF President David Beckford joins CEPE Board

David Beckford, Managing Director of Pronto Industrial Paints, an industrial coatings manufacturer based in South Yorkshire in the UK, has been voted onto the CEPE (European coatings association) Board of Directors.

David is a serving member of the British Coatings Federation board (since 2011) and was BCF President from 2018 to 2020. He received almost unanimous support from the CEPE membership, with 2,673 votes in favour, 3 abstentions and 0 votes against. The result was announced by CEPE President, Roald Johannsen (Vice President, PPG Automotive Coatings EMEA) at the CEPE General Assembly in Madrid on 30th September 2022.

“Given the interconnected supply chains, and significant overlap of membership, the UK paint industry continues to have an excellent relationship with the European coatings association, CEPE, and I’m delighted David has stepped up to represent the UK.”, commented Tom Bowtell, CEO of the BCF.

“It is an honour to serve on the European coatings association’s board, and I’m really looking forward to contributing to the important work we have ahead of us to continue to influence chemical regulations in the EU and UK and to promote the positive contribution of the coatings sector to society. I want to champion the voice of the smaller companies, as well as be the link between BCF and CEPE on the challenging topic of Brexit.”, Beckford commented.

The UK had been represented on the CEPE Board of Directors by BCF Board member Geoff Mackrill, owner of Teal & Mackrill Paints in Hull, who has retired from the board after serving his full six-year term. He was given a much-deserved round of applause by the audience at the General Assembly in Madrid for his efforts to represent the interests of the UK members but more generally for the needs of smaller paint and ink companies on the CEPE board.

“It is fantastic to continue to have representation from the UK on the CEPE board, and from an SME company. We welcome David to the board and wish him every success.”, concluded Mr Johannsen.

Photo, from left to right – David Beckford, Pronto Industrial Paints; Geoff Mackrill, Teal and Mackrill; Roald Johannsen, CEPE President and PPG

Richard Steele retires from the Board and the industry

Richard Steele, who was a senior commercial Director at Beckers in Liverpool, stood down from the BCF Board of Directors in October this year, ahead of his retirement from the industry at the end of the year.

In his 43 years at Goodlass Wall / Beckers, Richard has held a number of roles. Starting in the labs, he progressed to Technical Manager of Industrial Coatings then after 10 years moved to the central organisation covering global technical coordination and operational support. In 2008, Richard decided that 10 years of living out of a suitcase was enough for anyone and returned to the UK organisation as Operations Manager, then in 2010 moved to his final role as Business Director of Industrial Coatings.

Richard has contributed a huge amount to BCF’s work since joining the Industrial and Powder Coatings Council in 2015. Richard always gave a considered and meaningful opinion in our discussions and was a real team player.

Richard became a BCF Board Director in August 2019, when I approached Beckers to join the BCF board –something I’d been working on for a while.

Richard has been one of the most regular attendees on the board since joining and was very active in our discussions on the impact of Covid and particularly Brexit and the Northern Ireland trading challenges.

We wish Richard well in his retirement!

“Richard has contributed a huge amount to BCF’s work since joining the Industrial and Powder Coatings Council in 2015. Richard always gave a considered and meaningful opinion in our discussions and was a real team player. “

Remembering Doug Norton

Founder of Indestructible Paint

remembered by his colleagues and family

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of the founder of Indestructible Paint, Douglas Norton, in late September 2022.

Born on 19th August 1930, Doug developed a passion for paint and surface coatings when he was apprenticed at Llewellyn Ryland from 1948 to 1950. Doug was called up between 1950 to 1953 for National Service. Doug’s career progressed with Permoglaze between 1954 –1956 at Tenbury Wells; from where he moved to Gittings & Hills Paint Company of Nechells, Birmingham. Gittings & Hills then became Ault & Wiborg, where his career progressed eventually becoming Chief Chemist; then Export Manager.

Ault & Wiborg closed their Birmingham branch circa. 1977; Doug was invited to move to London to the Perivale site but he did not wish to uproot his family.

With great pride, Doug opened the doors to Indestructible Paint on 4th July 1978 which Doug referred to as his “Independence Day “!

Thanks to his passion for surface coatings, his expertise and dedication to customer satisfaction, the company grew from a small, independent workshop in Birmingham’s Acocks Green, to become a leading supplier of high-performance, niche aerospace products for international customers. Doug was involved with the Paint Makers Association up to the time when it became the BCF in 1993 when printing inks joined forces with the paint community.

Doug encouraged his son Brian to get involved with the BCF regarding BSI and MOD standards - and Brian has been, and is still involved with BCF today as an important member of the Aerospace and Defence Committee, along with his brother Alan.

Doug’s pioneering legacy lives on in the wonderful team he developed at Indestructible Paint, his work at Birmingham Paint Varnish and Lacquer Club and OCCA, his wife Sue, children, family, and friends.

He will be greatly missed by all.

As

“Although I never met Doug, he was clearly a driving force in the Birmingham and West Midlands paint industry community for many years, and Indestructible Paint are still a leading light for UK SMEs in the aerospace coatings sector today”.

- Tom Bowtell, Chief Executive of BCF

New members

We are proud to announce that despite a challenging year, the BCF has achieved 100% retention of its Full members. If you would like to find out more about the opportunities available to our members, and the support we provide, please contact Ali Brown at: alison.brown@bcf.co.uk.

Full members

Bartoline Ltd

Bartoline is a leading manufacturer of decorating sundries, exterior woodcare and coatings and related ancillary products for the UK DIY and trade sectors supplying an extensive range of branded and customer own-brand products.

Bartoline continuously strives to meet exacting industry standards having ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certifications and in 2022 achieved a Bronze EcoVadis Sustainability Rating placing it in the top 33 per cent globally for sustainability commitment and performance.

www.bartoline.co.uk

Associate members

Safic Alcan UK Ltd

Founded in 1847, Safic-Alcan is a global specialty chemicals distributor that offers a direct access to a large and diverse portfolio of innovative products. We are the link between our principals, state-of-the-art global manufacturers, and our customers.

With the purpose of being the “durable link”, Safic-Alcan works with its customers to deliver innovative solutions while deploying a genuine commitment to quality and sustainability. The company’s service-oriented growth model takes advantage of well-implemented local offices bringing their know-how, their local culture and language, their environment, and their markets knowledge.

Safic-Alcan employs approximately 700 people around the world and serves customers in more than 60 countries. The company had 2021 revenues of approximately 725 M€ and is headquartered in Paris - La Défense in France.

www.safic-alcan.com

Millstone Durbax; supplier of an exclusive product portfolio into the coatings market through a combination of internal manufacture, product development, outsourcing & distribution. Our portfolio includes:

• Polyacrylate crosslinkers for UV and EB curable systems

• Polyfunctional aziridine crosslinkers for both aqueous and non-aqueous systems

• Polyurethane catalysts

• Epoxy curing agents

• Corrosion inhibitors

We work with a select number of partners in Asia, Europe & UK to offer a complete service, pinpointing every function of the sales lifecycle.

www.millstonedurbax.com

Millstone Durbax Ltd

Upcoming events and meetings

All BCF meeting are now face-to-face at our offices in Coventry unless otherwise stated.

Germany

Coatings Puzzler

Across

3. When a paint or varnish forms bubbles on the surface (10)

4. Commercial printing term (4)

9. Describes a coating that acts as a barrier to liquid (11)

10. Red and blue mixed together creates (6)

Down

1. Standard length of a roll of British wallpaper (3) (6)

2. A chemical substance used to kill microorganisms (8)

5. A type of coating used to reduce ships drag through the water (11)

6. A type of paint (5) (5)

7. A preparation before wallpaper is hung (7)

8. Printing inks and varnishes are mixtures manufactured from combanations of ____ (9)

Word Search

Sudoku

Our Associate members

The BCF has a growing number of Associate members who provide essential products and services to the coatings industry. More information about each of these companies is available on the BCF website directory of members but if you’d like an introduction, please cotact Ali Brown (alison.brown@bcf.co.uk) who’d be pleased to help.