The company has been struggling with a post-covid slowdown, growing raw material costs, and customer destocking
As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce expenses and strengthen its core coatings business, AkzoNobel, the maker of Dulux paints on Thursday said that it has opened a new tab and would assess its business portfolio in South Asia, with an initial focus on decorative paints, as per Reuters.
Through the business evaluation in the region, which the Dutch company dubbed “ripe for consolidation”, it would investigate options including partnerships, joint ventures, mergers or divestitures.
“This strategic review represents a key step towards focussing our portfolio on positions of differentiating scale in key coatings markets,” Greg Poux-Guillaume, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) stated in a statement. Last year, AkzoNobel unveiled a cost-cutting strategy that includes boosting the effectiveness of its supply chains
The company has been struggling with a post-covid slowdown, growing raw material costs, and customer destocking. Since then, it has declared plans to reduce more than 5 per cent of its staff and to close plants in Zambia, the Netherlands, and Ireland by the end of 2024.
About 24 per cent of the unit’s total sales of 2.20 billion euros was generated by its decorative paints division in Asia, which brought in 528 million euros (USD 582.4 million) in the first half of the year. The South Asia Pacific area generated 13 per cent of AkzoNobel’s 10.67 billion euros in revenue in 2023.
