CEO blog– Looking ahead to challenges in 2022

By Tom Bowtell, Chief Executive Officer of the BCF

I’m so impressed with how members have responded to all the challenges thrown at them in the last 12 months, and despite many difficulties have continued to produce and deliver high quality paints, coatings, printing inks and wallcoverings for UK and export customers. 

The raw material crisis, which our industry has battled with throughout 2021 is not abating, and despite lower demand in some coatings segments, supply availability is still restricted, and prices are at an all-time high. We have recently published an information note on raw material price trends which you can find at BCF Information note - Raw material prices January 2022 - British Coatings Federation Ltd (site-ym.com)

We know from member feedback that the Brexit impact has pretty much all been downside, and the bad news is that the biggest negative impact we fear hasn’t even started to hit us yet. I’m talking about UK REACH of course, and the BCF has been leading supply chain efforts to try to get Defra to recognise our concerns.

I’m thrilled to let you know that we had a really significant breakthrough just before Christmas, with Defra agreeing to review their approach to UK REACH, accepting that the expected enormous burden on industry over the next seven years (estimated at over £1 billion) would be disproportionate and would make UK manufacturing uncompetitive. 

As a result, UK REACH deadlines have now been extended by two years, and we are looking forward to engaging positively in the coming year with Government, industry colleagues and others to find a more workable solution to regulating chemicals safely and proportionately in the UK. You can read the full press release from Defra on this at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deadline-for-uk-reach-to-be-extended.

2022 will see us build on the BCF members’ Net Zero carbon emissions pledge made last October, through an important piece of work to complete the Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050 for the sector. In addition to this, we need to make progress with PaintCare – the scheme that will deliver our ambitious target of achieving growth from 2% today to 75% of leftover decorative paint being re-used, recycled or re-manufactured by 2030. 

We also want to continue to build on our careers work, with another course of Coatings Ambassador training, and continued promotion of the BCF’s Coatings Careers Hub, which we encourage members to take advantage of. If you are looking to promote vacancies or participate in filming, get in touch with our team at info[at]bcf.co.uk. 

The Omicron wave of Covid-19 led to significant absences in member companies in January, but at time of writing we seem to be over the peak, but we cannot be complacent.  With the dropping of all restrictions, we hope 2022 will be a much better year, at least from a Covid-19 point of view.  On that note, in terms of getting back to normal, our Conference returns to its usual May slot, with the programme literally hot off the press and our 2022 Awards entries will open in March, with the ceremony in October.  We’ve also got the BCF sponsored bike ride to look forward to in July, so it’s time to get training!

BCF membership is stronger than ever, and for the first in my tenure as CEO, we have achieved a 100% retention rate for our 150 full member companies in 2022.

As always, please do get in touch with any comments, thoughts or feedback on how we can improve our service to you, and thanks again for your continued support.

ENDS