AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Paint and coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel announced plans to invest more than €1.3 million to build a pilot plant for coating resins at its Performance Coatings site located in Felling, UK.

The state-of-the-art facility, which will create three new jobs and safeguard a further 28 positions at the site, will provide resin samples for product testing and the possibility to scale up to commercial manufacture. Start-up is expected in the first quarter of 2016.

"In-house resin development is a key part of our coatings R&D effort," explained Adam Bell, Head of the Scale-Up Team for the pilot plant. "This facility will improve our delivery of large-scale resin for testing, while streamlining the scale-up process from the laboratory through to factory manufacturing."

The new facility was part-funded by the UK government's Let's Grow Regional Growth Fund. It represents the latest addition to the Felling location, which is the Performance Coatings business' largest R&D site worldwide, employing around 300 scientists.