Meet Lorena Couch, Quality Control Supervisor
Successful rebranding after acquisition prioritizes people
Meet Lina Patiño. By prioritizing customers and colleagues in her project roadmap, she helped ensure the successful rebrand of our Pamiers, France site.
“I’ve always accepted new challenges and worked creatively to get results,” says Lina Patiño. “Leading a rebranding project after acquisition, I can say that it’s incredibly important to prioritize and work smart. With a project of this scale, you can’t do everything at once.”
After the finalization of AkzoNobel’s acquisition of aerospace coatings manufacturer Mapaero, we turned our attention to rebranding the site in Pamiers, France. As communication lead for Aerospace, Automotive and Specialty Coatings at the site, Lina developed a roadmap for completing the project on time and in full – keeping both customers and colleagues top of mind throughout.
“The acquisition has given us a chance to connect with colleagues all over the world,” says Lina Patiño. “I’ve been able to expand my knowledge of other markets and new technologies beyond liquid paint. We always specialized in sustainable water-based and advanced eco-friendly products – now as AkzoNobel, sustainability remains fully integrated in everything we do. That’s also so important to me.”
Smooth transition for customers
“We first prioritized our customer communications: packaging and labeling, color books, technical data sheets, material safety data sheets, quotations and invoices,” says Lina. “We naturally required a new label template for products being manufactured. But first we had to rebrand the current stock of paints – which turned out to be one of our biggest challenges.
“We had around 20,000 paint cans that needed to be relabeled and only days to accomplish it. For the label itself, which is unique to every single can, we opted for a perfect fit “sticker” of the AkzoNobel logo. That interim solution wouldn’t have an impact on manufacturing dates, part numbers, batch ids and expiration dates. Then, pulling together with colleagues in production and administration, we got the AkzoNobel logo sticker on all our stock.”
The hustle was all worth it – Lina says: “The day we shipped the first completely AkzoNobel-branded product pallet was a great team accomplishment.”
Investments in site culture
As soon as customer-facing materials were taken care of, the focus switched to the 140 people on site and their work environment.
“Phase two was about taking care of signage, stationery and work clothing for R&D and production team,” explains Lina. “There was a lot of excitement when they received their new T-shirts, sweaters and lab coats. The Pamiers team really felt in that moment that they had become part of AkzoNobel.”
On her side, Lina is proud to have joined a company with a vision for painting the future. She says: “I love how people are part of the core values of the company. That ensures the safety and growth of employees and people in surrounding communities.”
A leader in aerospace coatings
AkzoNobel supplies high performance products and technologies for aircraft worldwide.
