When it comes to paints and coatings in the automotive segment across the globe, ‘A1’ conveys a good idea – ‘A’ for Axalta and ‘1’ for world No.1. Axalta, part of the Carlyle Group, formerly DuPont Performance Coatings, is a leading global company focused on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions for a range of applications starting from light vehicles, automotive refinish and commercial vehicles to electric motors, buildings and pipelines.
Delivering coatings which are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and extending the lifespan of coated materials, Axalta is among the top five companies globally in the overall coatings business, while it is a market leader in the automotive sector with a dominant position in the commercial vehicle space. The company is formulating a five year plan as part of which it is looking to aggressively expand its presence in the Asian region with special focus on the Indian market.
Asian market focus
In its five year plan, Axalta is seriously looking at India, on how to make its Indian plant capable of serving our global customers in the OEM market. The overall coatings market in India is expected to grow at nearly twice the GDP growth rate which indicates the country’s huge potential. The company considers Asia as an important region with both China and India being markets of focus. Until 2013, Axalta had no business from the truck segment in China and given that Chinese truck market is comparable to the size of that in North America, Latin America and Europe put together, there is huge potential for growth for the company.
Axalta entered the Indian market way back in 1996 with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Baroda (Savli) and Kolkata. The company has a state-of-the-art manufacturing, research and training centre at Savli near Baroda in Gujarat which has been functional since 2004. The plant is equipped with state-of-the-art tools and machinery which includes paint manufacturing facilities along with an R&D centre for accurate color mixing and matching. Axalta’s R&D setup in India serves the company’s 450 distributors and over 1100 of its body-shops in different parts of the country. Globally, it has a network of over 4,500 distributors who reach nearly 80,000 body shops across the world.
Transportation coatings
Axalta provides coating solutions designed to deliver maximum performance with a variety of liquid and powder products for manufacturers of heavy duty trucks, buses, rail cars and utility trucks. It manufactures a range of water-borne and solvent-borne paint systems for truck makers around the world. While Imron is its flagship coating for heavy duty trucks, it also has Alesta powder coatings in its range to protect chassis, brackets, supports and many others components.
The company is a partner of several major commercial vehicle manufacturers and is involved in painting various applications such as trailers, truck lifts, built-on cranes, and truck and trailer bodies, which usually require a coating system that can stand up to conditions that are some of the harshest and varying in different parts of the world.
Axalta’s heavy duty truck paints are not only available for OEMs, but also for refinish use in fleet repair shops, and are based on the same technology which provides a superb refinish application. The company has a database of around 5,000 formulations to support the Indian market from over 50,000 active color formulations in the refinish business globally as part of its library of over 4 million color formulations.
Axalta also offers solvent-borne and water-borne paint systems for buses through its Imron and Centari brands which offer excellent long-term corrosion protection in a wide range of colors. It works with leading bus manufacturers globally including the likes of Volvo and Marcopolo. Axalta has Volvo as one of its customers in India while it also supplies to the Tata Marcopolo joint venture which is the largest producer of buses in the country.
Axalta’s global expertise – Quick facts
• Over 145 years of experience in the coatings industry
• More than 12,000 people who create, manufacture, distribute and support our products and services
• Doing business in 130 countries
• 35 manufacturing plants around the world
• 7 Research & Development centers on four continents
• Over 1,800 patents held or pending
• 45 training centers to support our refinish customers around the globe
• More than 120,000 customers including 4,000 distributors
• 2013 revenues of $4.3 billion
Volvo Bus Excellence Award for Axalta Coating Systems
Axalta Coating Systems, the leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, has been named the winner of the ‘Volvo Bus Excellence Award’ in the field of “Delivery Excellence 2014” by the Volvo Buses purchasing team in India. The Award was presented at the Volvo Buses, India – Supplier Conference 2014 held in Bangalore in December last.
Axalta has partnered with Volvo Buses India since its inception in 2008. With skilled manpower and round-the-clock service, Axalta has maintained a record of zero logistical and service issues registered with Volvo Buses to date. It has consistently provided innovative and quality coating solutions to Volvo Buses to support its growth as a leader of the bus industry in India.
Mr. VRV Sriprasad, Managing Director, Volvo Buses India, said on the occasion: “Volvo Buses is committed to modernising the public transport landscape and to drive the quality of life for people in India. One of our core values is Care for Environment and our buses epitomize this. The association with Axalta is in line with this core value. We would like to congratulate Axalta for their support, and look forward to a stronger partnership in the coming years.”
Mr. Vinay Rajadhyaksha, Managing Director, Axalta India, observed: “It brings us great pride to receive the ‘Delivery Excellence 2014 Award’ from Volvo Buses in India. The Award recognizes the dedication we strive to deliver every day to Volvo Buses and all our customers across India. The Award is a wonderful recognition of the Axalta team that supports our customers.”