BCF Blog: CEPE Conference 2019

Tom Bowtell, CEO

Ellen and I went to Malta in the middle of September, to attend the CEPE conference and the bi-annual meetings for paint and ink national associations.  Sounds attractive, but we spend 2.5 long days in hotel conference rooms with no windows!  As always, networking was the best part of the CEPE event.  It’s a great place for us to interact with the senior people in many of our member companies, but also to talk to potential BCF members, especially associate members.   UK attendees included Geoff Mackrill, who as well as being on the BCF board, is also a CEPE board member.  Peter Rieck, our non-executive director, was also there. On Friday morning I met the new General Manager of CEPE, Christel Davidson, and gave her a congratulations card, with a welcome message and open invitation to visit us in the UK early in 2020, when she starts her role.  Jan Van Der Meulen was given an appropriate well-deserved send-off.  He will stay until the end of March 2020, as part of the handover.

 Whichever way Brexit goes, we want to keep our close relations with CEPE, their board and members, many of whom are also in the BCF. Everyone wanted to talk about Brexit, which I have to say got rather tiresome after 3 days! 

We talked about the major lobbying issues in Europe at the moment in the national association meeting – which includes biocides, microplastics, poison centres and titanium dioxide.

Some key messages from the conference – despite the short term dip in the economy, the longer-term global macro-economic prospects are pretty positive in the EU.  The European paint market is growing, albeit slowly.  Deco volumes grew 0.4% across Europe, and the UK was one of the best growth markets, with 3% volume growth.  Most industrial sectors also grew, apart from the coil.  The conference talked about the new generation of millennials, who are more likely to have it done for them, rather than DIY.  Having said that, over 60% of paint jobs in Europe are DIY, versus using a professional.   The conference also talked about the lack of future skilled painters across Europe, and how the industry might re-position itself to be more attractive. We heard from the European DIY retailers association, who have a focus on making the paint more sustainable, and want information about safety and environmental impact of paint products.  Next year the conference heads to Madrid, at the end of September, and of course, we’d like to see more BCF members attend.