HomeNewsUK coatings sector celebrates young talent at record-breaking ceremony for 13th annual industry excellence awards

UK coatings sector celebrates young talent at record-breaking ceremony for 13th annual industry excellence awards

22 October 2023

More news

The winners of the 2023 British Coatings Federation (BCF) Awards were announced on 19th October at The Grand Hotel in Birmingham. More than 200 delegates attended the biggest-ever event in the 13 years of running the awards.

The highlight of the evening was celebrating the amazing young talent coming through in the sector, recognised in the Apprentice of the Year Award, won by Sean Kelly from Anstey Wallpaper Company; Young Leader of the Year Award, won by Molly Kershaw from PPG Architectural Coatings and Student of the Year Award, which saw Courtney Turner from Tor Coatings win.

Recognising investment in people, Sherwin-Williams were awarded the Diversity and Inclusion Award, followed by HMG Paints being presented as the winner of the Excellence in Training Award.

The Sustainable Innovation Multinational Award was won by Siegwerk for UniNATURE, and the Sustainable Innovation SME Award was presented to Terrafend for Ambimization®. A new category for 2023 was launched, Race to Net Zero, with its first-ever win being awarded to Crown Paints.

The sustainability theme carried on through the evening with the Coatings Care Progress Award was given to winning site Becker Industrial Coatings, and Overall Best Performer was awarded to Tor Coatings. The Corporate Social Responsibility Award was taken home by PPG Architectural Coatings for their Community Engagement Programme.

The Customer Service Award was presented to AkzoNobel’s Dulux Decorator Centre. For Marketing Campaign of the Year, it was the ‘AI-generated colour range’ campaign that took home the award for HMG Paints.

In her first event as BCF President, Sharon Harte, Managing Director of Dacrylate Paints, commented: “It is so exciting to see so much young talent in our sector, demonstrated in our Student, Apprentice and Young Leader of the Year categories. Many congratulations to all those who were shortlisted, but especially to the winners”.

The BCF would like to thank its Award sponsors, Stort Group, BASF, The Paint Foundation, Verlingue, Synthomer, Xyntra, Fenton Packaging, Tronox, Crusader Vehicle Leasing and GDB Paint & Coatings for their support.