AkzoNobel Specialty Finishes has opened a new Design Center in Offenbach, Germany, the business’ fourth specialist facility dedicated to serving customers around the globe.

Easily accessible to European customers via nearby Frankfurt Airport, the new premises in Germany adds to the business’ existing Design Centers in Seoul, Korea; Beijing, China; and South Carolina in the US.

Company experts at all four locations work closely with customers to provide a wide range of coatings solutions for products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, car components, home appliances, golf balls, cosmetics and personal care packaging.

“In today’s market, our ability to deliver made-to-order innovative coatings solutions represents an important competitive advantage,” said specialty finishes business director Peter Brenner. “One of our goals with the new Design Center is to help our customers be first to market with new colors and effects.”

An added advantage of the German facility is that it shares premises with one of the Specialty Finishes business’ Solutions Labs. This means that technicians are able to immediately translate color and coatings concepts into samples for customers to see on actual components and products.

“Our link to the Solutions Lab is vitally important,” explained global design manager Stephie Sijssens. “In the Design Center, we are not just talking about trends and working from our color library, but we are also working together with the lab to create precisely the colors the customer needs.”

“We want our customers to feel that we are a partner in their design process, so we hope they will take advantage of the new center,” added Sijssens. “It’s a place where we can come together, where customers bring their product ideas and we present our coatings, colors ideas and effects. Together with our labs, we then translate the ideas into solutions so they can go home with a finished product.”