AkzoNobel foresees a big market for paints

Ton Büchner, CEO and chairman of the board of management and the executive committee, talked with VIR’s Hong Anh about the company’s plan in the coming years to distinguish themselves from competitors and to grow in this market.

What role does Vietnam play in the global picture for AkzoNobel?

Southeast Asia-Pacific is recognised as one of the growing markets of AkzoNobel, and Vietnam has been playing an important part thanks to its record positive growth in decorative paints and coatings in 2015.

The rapid growth of the country’s economy, coupled with the young and large population, open an invaluable chance for AkzoNobel to continuously invest and develop this market. I’m pretty impressed with the trend that more and more Vietnamese youngsters are moving out to start their new lives in a separated home with personalised architectural details. The demand for purchasing high-quality and unique paint has increased since then, which sets a very high bar for paint and coatings producers.

AkzoNobel can totally satisfy this demand. In Vietnam we have decorative paints, wood coatings, marine coatings, protective coatings, powder coatings, metal coatings, and speciality coating businesses. One of our most recent paints and coatings solutions introduced to the market is the Dulux Professional range – with a total portfolio of 64 products that cover all paintable surfaces, including interiors, exteriors, metal, and wood. We want to utilise our strengths to be a one-stop solutions provider for any coating needs in Vietnam.

AkzoNobel is a market leader in Vietnam. As CEO, do you have any plans to further enhance this

position?

In Vietnam, AkzoNobel has been recognised as the market leader in the paints and coatings industry for many years. We have done so by offering high-quality products and manufacturing and invested a lot in our people, making sure that we train them, educate them, and take care of their career. Some of our Vietnamese colleagues have been selected to work in the regional office, and even at the headquarters of AkzoNobel in Amsterdam.

We will continue to invest in our personnel development. And alongside that, our investment has also been placed in the expansion of our manufacturing facilities of decorative paints, powder coatings, and wood coatings. So, with Vietnam growing, AkzoNobel will continue to grow and continue to be a leader.

Besides international competitors, we are also seeing a strong push from local players. These local groups are aggressively investing in technology and innovation as well. Is this a challenge for AkzoNobel?

AkzoNobel has the advantage of global presence and expertise. We do innovation globally, and in many different areas in the world, and we can bring them to Vietnam. This allows us to have the best methodology to run our factories and to execute marketing campaigns in Vietnam.

It is important to always stay ahead of the competition, whether it is international competition or local competition. And that means we have to offer our customers products that they believe are the best products in the market.

As an engineer with many years’ experience and global business acumen, what do you see as the upcoming trends of the paints and coatings industry?

I think digitalisation will continue to grow very fast. Smartphones and tablets are becoming our tools to look at, evaluate, and order things. Therefore, we utilise these devices to communicate with our consumers.

The Dulux Visualizer is among the most digitally innovative projects of AkzoNobel, as it allows users to just stay at home and play on devices to change the look and feel of their rooms from thousands of colour choices. This mobile app is now available in most of our markets, and has already had more than 12 million downloads. It has also helped us gain insights, which can be effectively utilised to forecast trends. We also have our colour experts at our Global Aesthetic Center, who study design and colour trends for the coming year – for instance, ‘Denim Drift’ is the Colour of the Year for 2017.

But we notice that consumers nowadays do not just look for colours; they also want aesthetic sense through texture and special effects when combined with colour. And that is the reason why we introduced Dulux Ambiance Special Effects, with marble, linen, metallic, and velvet effects last year. The experts at our Global Aesthetic Center have come up with some notable breakthroughs in combining colours and textures that are sophisticated, yet effective.

Back to the future prospects of paints and coatings trends, sustainability is where the industry is heading to. Customers are increasingly concerned about the origins of products, the safety of ingredients, and their environmental friendliness. In order to be successful, no business can stay on the sidelines.