The Exterior Paints market in Europe dropped by -5.8% in value. Interconnection Consulting predicts a larger decline of -7.5% in 2024. According to a recent study by Interconnection Consulting, the market experienced a decline of 5.8%% in 2023, following a previous stagnation 0.4% recorded the year before. This downturn can be attributed to various factors, including market instability and lack of new construction projects, resulting in a decrease in the total number of liter of paints sold from 2.187 Mio. to 2.177 Mio. in analysed countries (Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Spain, Poland). The majority of doors, 68.8%, were sold in the Residential segment. However, even this segment saw a decrease in quantity of around 6.1% in 2023 compared to the previous year, with an overall market decrease of 0.5%. Pessimism continues to insist in 2024, with building forecasts for residential averaging -9.0%, which is more affected than the non-residential segment, averaging -4.2%, but with significant differences among countries. Italy's development could only be impromptu In terms of growth rates, Italy and Poland performed best. The former recorded the highest value growth in the study (+12.7%). The effects of the Superbonus are still being felt, but these will dry up in the coming years as they have been reduced by the Italian government. Historically, they have gone from the initial 110 to 90 in 2022 and finally to 70 in 2023. From 2025, this measure will no longer exist, and the renovation market in Italy will grow more slowly in turn. Poland grew in value by 10.6% compared to 2022. This result is heavily influenced by the high inflation existing in the country. Despite its average prices being lower than those of Central European countries, the rate in quantity remains almost unchanged (+1.4%). Meanwhile, the largest decline was recorded in Austria, at -13.3% last year. The structure of demand could change in the coming years: acrylic paints will dominate southern Europe Emulsion Paints dominate the market as the most popular bonding agent used for exterior paints, with a market share of 34.5% in quantity. It is important to note that emulsion paints will lose share in the next few years, giving more protagonism to acrylic based paints. Italy and Spain have particularly acrylic paints of over 45% – mostly due to regulations, requirements of their usage in the residential segment and price convenience. Overall, silicone resin-based paints are also very popular in certain residential projects due to its high resistance to external phenomena. Silicone-resin paints have achieved nearly 30% of the total market in quantity. Among the leading silicone-resin manufacturers in the analysed countries, notable names include AkzoNobel, Baumit, Brillux, Caparol, Meffert, PPG, Prosol, Unikalo, Weber, listed alphabetically. 01/07/2024 Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.

The market for external facility services in Austria will increase by 4.5% in 2018. The boom in office building services in particular is behind the industry’s significant growth in market volume. This trend will lead to a further increase in external real estate services in the future as well. The industry is thus expected to see an average annual increase of 4.6% to the year 2021 Offices Stepping on the Gas The market for external facility management services will increase to nearly EUR 6.7 billion by 2021, thereby overtaking internal services to an ever greater degree. There are several reasons for this. Companies themselves promote outsourcing as they focus on their core business across all their divisions. New technologies require new types of maintenance and care, even if only a portion of the providers offer these options. With an increase of 6.2%, the customer segment office buildings was the driving force behind external real estate services in 2017. Such momentum is particularly striking since the segment clearly underperformed in the previous years. As a result of this vitality, offices have not only been able to catch up with industry’s rate of growth, but have actually overtaken it (6.2% to 4.6%). Technical Services Catching Up Once again, technical services outperformed all others, notching an increase of 6.3%. The tremendous need can be explained by both the continued outsourcing of services and the increase in production, trade, and logistics in the booming economy. Over the long term, technical services will see revenue growth at the expense of the currently dominant infrastructural services. The developments of infrastructural services’ sub-segments were quite varied. While office cleaning/janitorial grew strongly (+4.6%), catering managed a plus of only 3.2%. Growth in security, the other high-volume sub-segment, was also a sub-par 3.3%. "Since 2016, contracts have been expiring that were made during the refugee crisis," explains Tobias Stickelberger, author of the study. Yet the general need for security has by no means diminished among customers. However, job qualifications have become more stringent, and so not every job can be carried out as requested because the staff is lacking, Stickelberger explains. The largest sub-segment in infrastructure management continues to be commercial cleaning, with a volume of EUR 1.7 billion, followed by security (EUR 652 million) and catering (EUR 608 million). The share of infrastructure services currently stands at 61.0%, ahead of technical services (32.7%) and entrepreneurial services (6.4%).  

On account of the ongoing outsourcing of real estate services, growth in the external facility services sector will continue to far exceed inflation in the future. A new study by Interconnection Consulting foresees an average annual growth of 4.3% until 2021. For the first time, turnover in technical facility services in Germany was higher than that of infrastructural facility services. Technical Services on the Rise The overall market for external facility services in Germany succeeded in breaking the EUR 60 billion mark for the first time (EUR 60.3 billion). Since 2013, infrastructural and technical services in Germany have been roughly equal. However, on account of lower growth in 2017, infrastructural services are, for the first time, less valuable than technical services, which saw an increase of 5.6% in the previous year. Technological advances make infrastructure maintenance of a given property less labor-intensive and thus cheaper, and yet providers cannot just conjure up a slew of new services. Such is not the case in technical services, explains Tobias Stickelberger, author of the study. "Despite general deindustrialization, the advancement in the mechanization of buildings and facilities ends up generating increased revenue in this sector." Outsourcing the Driving Force Behind External Services The market for external facility management services of all providers will expand to over EUR 71 billion by 2021. Companies tend to focus on their core business especially during difficult economic times and therefore outsource facility services. So it is not surprising that the outsourcing rate in 2017 was 56.87%. By comparison, the rate was under 50% in 2012. Overall, the external market increased by 4.7%, but the overall market for facility management (external plus internal) only by 2.1%. Bitter Price War The customer segment industry witnessed a growth of 5.0%, making it the leading segment ahead of transport at 5.1% and trade at 4.8%. 16.5% of all services were generated in the newly formed German states and Berlin, whereby the vitality (+4.3%) appears to be flattening again somewhat. Facility services providers complain of shorter contracts and the frequent need to renegotiate prices. "Even well-known providers are hardly able to distinguish themselves enough from the pack to make the price of secondary importance," explains Stickelberger. Customers who advertise each maintenance group individually and negotiate strictly according to price are common. The top five companies hold 9.4% of the total market. The top ten have a share of 14.86%.