AkzoNobel expands global network with launch of first yacht paint application centre in Germany

AkzoNobel has opened its first Yacht Paint Application Centre (YPAC) in Germany, expanding its network of technical training and support facilities for professional applicators and boatyards.

“The opening of our new Yacht Paint Application Centre in Germany marks another milestone in our commitment to technical leadership, training, and customer partnership,” says Jemma Lampkin, yacht global commercial director at AkzoNobel.

The new facility in Hamburg will support customers across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, with training covering yacht paint application, maintenance, and repair.

The Hamburg YPAC is designed for applicators, distributors, designers, contractors, and other professionals working across the superyacht and leisure marine sectors. It includes a training room, paint mixing room, preparation bay, and spray booth.

AkzoNobel says the facility is intended to help address the ‘skills gap’ in the marine coatings sector, while providing practical training as regulations and paint technologies develop.

Training facilities

The centre will provide training and product support across AkzoNobel’s Awlgrip and International brands, covering preparation, priming, filling, topcoat application, maintenance, and repair.

It also includes digital training tools, including a virtual reality (VR) spray-gun simulation. The system allows applicators to practise yacht painting techniques without using actual products, with users able to adjust spray-gun settings and practise angles for different coating systems.

Other digital tools at the facility include XpertEye, which lets applicators connect with AkzoNobel’s technical team for real-time support, and Automatchic Vision (AMV), a handheld spectrophotometer for colour measurement.

The centre also provides access to MIXIT, AkzoNobel’s colour identification and retrieval platform, which the company says contains a database of more than 17,000 colours.

The Hamburg facility joins existing YPAC locations in North America, the Netherlands, the UK, and Australia (where the company opened its first yacht paint training centre in Asia-Pacific in 2023).