“Conquer a slice of the market”

You recently signed a distribution deal to export your wood coatings to the US. What is your strategy?

Andrea Moltrasio: We have always been internationally oriented. We were among the first Italian coating manufacturers to start exporting industrial and wood paint products abroad and today we are present in 45 countries. The involvement of the owning family’s 3rd generation has further accelerated our internalisation process. With sustainability as a purpose, rather than simply a corporate mission, we are pursuing a quality-oriented expansion strategy based on identifying companies that apply high-tech coatings and are on the hunt for solutions to reduce their carbon footprint.

How do the European and American markets differ?

Moltrasio: Italian and European paints in general are more advanced than the ones int the US in terms of technological content. We decided to concentrate our efforts on sustainable products because demand in this field is increasing steadily on the American market as well, also following the signing into law of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) for carbon emissions reduction.

What will be your next market moves?

Moltrasio: Over the last six months, we have been developing a line of water-based and UV water-based products that are highly competitive in terms of both physical-chemical characteristics and aesthetics. Rather than a demand-pull approach, we are going to give a major boost to our sales efforts by implementing an offer-push approach to better support and accelerate our customers’ decision-making processes. As a SME, we strive to combine production efficiency and tailor-made solutions to carve ourselves a niche and conquer a slice of the market, of course always with an eye on the environment.