THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT
The Chief Executive’s report
“I’m really proud of our team at the BCF, be it the technical,
marketing, membership or the new back office team. Together they
do a great job supporting you.”
Writing this in early 2019, there is only one topic everyone
is talking about. From the smallest to largest BCF member
company, Brexit will bring additional costs and complexities to
doing business, and potentially lower sales, when our exports are
less competitive, or manufacturing sectors where our coatings
or inks are used are moved into the EU. I hate to be so cup half
empty about any topic, but there really is little upside for our
sector with Brexit.
We continue to lobby hard for the UK to stay as closely aligned
to the EU as possible, ideally with access to the European
Chemicals Agency, to avoid the costly and frankly unworkable
option of running a parallel UK REACH alongside the European
Chemicals Agency.
Our efforts to help get the best Brexit outcome for our sector
include my participation on the BEIS EU Exit Task Force for
Chemicals, and Ellen Daniels, our Head of Public Affairs and
Policy, chairing the Cross Sector REACH supply chain industry
group. Several letters have been written to the Defra Minister,
Therese Coffey MP, to explain the challenges we expect if
the UK does have to create a UK REACH, which may still
have to happen as, even if we end up with a deal with the EU,
as membership of ECHA is a single market mechanism, so
would still need to be negotiated. Importantly this is on the
government’s wish list for the future trading relationship.
Whilst talking of Europe, we seem to be making some progress
with challenging the proposed CLP classification of TiO 2 . You’ll
remember this was raised by the French back in 2016, and is
close to completing the lengthy decision process through the
regulatory sausage machine in Brussels. In February 2019, the
European Commission tabled a proposal that would exclude
liquid mixtures like coatings and printing inks from being
classified as carcinogenic, which does help avert the major worry
about cancer labels on (for example) decorative coatings.
However, we don’t think a classification is appropriate at all, given
the concerns raised on cancer risks in rats, from one study from
decades ago that is crucial to the case, were caused by lung
overload which would have been caused by any poorly soluble
powdery substance. In addition, even with the proposed more
limited classification, concerns remain about powder coatings,
and for handling waste. In mid April, the REACH committee
dropped TiO 2 from their agenda, with continued objections
from member states, so the expected vote didn’t happen. The
process now moves to a new EU Parliament, after the elections
this Summer, and a new commission will pick up the topic. We
BCF ANNUAL HANDBOOK 2019/20
continue to fight for “no
classification” for TiO 2 , and
we see this further delay as
a positive outcome, but we
can’t be 100% what happens next.
We wrote to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the
Environment about the lack of enforcement of the Paint Product
Directive for Vehicle Refinish – which did get a mention in the
government’s new clean air strategy. At the time of writing we
are waiting for a follow up from the letter, but we will not stop
our efforts to insist that where legislation is passed, it is properly
enforced, to ensure a level playing field in vehicle refinish.
We also rolled out our PaintSafe initiative to the industrial sector
for the safe use of isocyanates, following the successful launch in
decorative and marine coatings.
For the printing ink sector, we ran two successful UV LED events
in late 2018, and have written to the EuPIA Council in Brussels
to ensure the Exclusion Policy is fit for purpose in future years.
Membership satisfaction hit 98% in our 2018 survey, up from
91% in 2016. Our membership retention rates remain at 99%
for Full members, and meeting members’ needs is, and always
will be our number one focus.
I’m really proud of our team at the BCF, be it technical,
marketing, membership, or the new back office team. Together
they do a great job supporting you, and the move to Coventry
has led to a new, more dynamic team in my view, much closer to
members, who we now see almost every week.
If you haven’t visited Spectra House yet, I’d urge you to come
along and join one of our many meetings here. We had 56 BCF
meetings in 2018, with 20% more members attending than in
2017.
Thanks as always for your continued support and
encouragement for our work at BCF – do let us know how we
could better serve you.
Tom Bowtell, BCF Chief Executive
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