Coating manufacturer Hempel’s R&D investment programme continues with the expansion of[ds_preview] its existing laboratory in Spain. The state-of-the-art facility in Polinyà (Barcelona) previously focused on developing Hempel’s extensive range of antifouling coatings and developing products for Spanish customers. Now, after a EUR 2 million expansion project, the R&D Centre will be able to apply its knowledge to support European businesses with protective, decorative and yacht coatings developed specifically to meet European and country legislation.
Hempel CEO Pierre-Yves Jullien, comments: »We have a policy of continuously increasing our R&D capabilities and skills. We are creating centres of excellence around the world. In November last year, we opened a new R&D Centre in Bahrain focused on the decorative segment, and now we can improve our service to decorative, yacht and protective customers around Europe.«
»We have a strong track record of developing products that meet client needs and specific environmental legislation. This is particularly important in the protective industry, which often involves specific legislation in each country, and increasingly important for customers in the decorative and yacht industries. The R&D Centre in Spain is very experienced in developing specialised product solutions – and we will now be able to offer this service faster to other European customers,« says Martin Wiese.
The Polinyà R&D Centre employs 40 people. The expansion was officially opened by Pierre-Yves Jullien at an inauguration ceremony was on 13 January 2010. Hempel also has R&D Centres in China, Korea, Singapore, Bahrain, Denmark, Germany and the USA.
