Decorative Paints Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
2022 summary
Our results were impacted by lower demand due to the turbulent business environment. The war in Ukraine, high raw material and energy costs and unprecedented inflation in the region caused a shift in consumer spending to the basic needs. As a result, the team worked hard to adapt to the changing market dynamics and reset our business. We continued to focus on serving our customers and building our brands, while implementing pricing initiatives to offset cost inflation. We’re excited about our intended acquisition of the African activities of Kansai Paint, a clear sign we’re continuing to build for the future, while remaining committed to achieving our strategic ambitions.
2022 was a turbulent year. The war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and reduced macro-economic confidence impacted our business significantly. I’m extremely proud of the commit-ment and resilience of the team to adapt.
Jan-Piet van KesterenDirector of Decorative Paints Europe, Middle East and Africa
Other key developments
- Our sustainability initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of our products gained strong momentum. This included switching much of our plastic packs in Europe to (partially) recycled plastic content, while we now use bio-based binders for some of our highest volume wall paints
- The benefits of our cross-business complexity reduction program focused on recipe, raw material and packaging consolidation – as well as late differentiation – started to kick in and helped us partially mitigate the huge raw material price increases and improve our agility
- Developed our significant stores footprint by moving to a fully autonomous franchise organization in the Netherlands and welcoming new partners into the growing Sikkens stores organization in France
- Numerous “Let’s Colour” community projects were staged across the region, while our long-standing partnership with SOS Children’s Villages continued to be a pivotal part of our social program, especially supporting families evacuating Ukraine
- The Dulux Academy continued to flourish. The program now delivers courses at 13 venues across the UK and has trained 13,000 painters and decorators to date
- Continued to build e-commerce direct-to-consumer delivery capability in several European markets to directly support ambitious growth plans for key retailers
2022 highlight
We announced our intention to acquire all the African paints and coatings activities of Kansai Paint, which is active in 12 countries in Africa. The intended transaction (to be finalized in 2023) includes the Plascon brand, which has more than 100 years of heritage in South Africa. Together with our own Dulux brand, they’re the longest-established paint brands in the region. Also included are all of Kansai Paint’s automotive and protective coatings, and coatings for wood and coil. The intended deal will further strengthen our leading business in the region and provide an excellent platform for future growth.
Transforming Tashan
More than 20 buildings in the Marmara district of Türkiye were given a new lease of life by our Marshall brand. A joint venture with the local council at Bilecik Gölpazarı, the project involved renovating 23 important historical structures within the Tashan conservation area.
Revenue
in € millions
Key brands
