MUENSTER, Germany– R-M^®, premium automotive refinish paint brand of BASF, has announced the winners of its 12^th International R-M Best Painter Contest. Berry Kooijmam from the Netherlands is the 2016 R-M Best Painter winner, followed by runner-up Genya Yokota from Japan and Myles Veljacic from Canada in third place. This year, for the first time, the R-M jury also honored the most “sustainable” painter. Myles Veljacic from Canada proved to be the most talented participant when it comes to efficient and sustainable use of paint-related materials. The R-M team, business partners including EMM, 3M, SATA, DeVILBISS, RUPES, as well as guests congratulated the winners and all 15 finalists from Europe, South Africa, Japan and Canada for their excellent results in this final competition in which they demonstrated their strong commitment to representing the business with both top-level expertise and innovative and sustainable thinking. The event took place on September 29, 2016 and was organized in a climate neutral manner.

“We are very proud of R-M’s initiative to encourage young talents in all our different countries to commit to work more efficiently and sustainably. We ensure high training standards in our Refinish Competence Centers worldwide and develop innovative solutions for our bodyshop customers to meet the market's current demands for boosting their productivity and eco-efficiency, including in their local markets,” said Dr. Katja Scharpwinkel, Senior Vice President Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions Europe. Among the 15 finalists R-M considers to be its “next generation” were two women, one from South Africa and one from Germany. Canada participated in the R-M Best Painter Contest for the first time.

In addition to the competition and the R-M press presentations, the event featured a BASF stand presenting selected projects with an innovative or sustainable impact that are produced by other business units.

Know-How and Expertise

During the competition, media representatives from Europe, Japan and South Africa learned more about R-M’s path to using digitalization in training courses, along with R-M’s color information management and software solutions. Furthermore, they attended press presentations and key speeches from the premium business partners EMM, 3M, SATA, DEVILBISS and RUPES that demonstrated the innovative and sustainable impact of product developments in the market. The contest's regular business partners Festool, Mettler-Toledo, sia Abrasives and Horn & Bauer supported both the national and international finals by showcasing the latest products and market insights.

Be Innovative – Think Sustainable

Guided by the motto “Be innovative – Think sustainable”, the finalists from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine and Canada demonstrated their skilled mastery of the different tasks in areas ranging from preparation, blending, color retrieval, color reading, masking, and health and safety. In an additional sustainability-related task, the contest evaluated the impact of each participant's sustainable solutions in every task.

“This final has shown us the very high level and strong commitment of all 15 finalists. The winner impressed the jury. But the second- and third-ranked winners were also very close. Over the past years, we have become aware that the young automotive refinish painters are better prepared and take advantage of our training courses for more efficient and sustainable application,” said Ronny Raeymaekers, Jury President of the International Final of the 2016 R-M Best Painter Contest.

Beyond Refinish: Colors & Design by R-M

Inspired by the latest color trends and the motto “Be innovative” and with the help of R-M's color competence, on the last day, the participants presented their color concepts on painted shapes, providing their personal view of future color concepts for e-cars. The winner of this additional color task was chosen by the journalists. The winner, Jorge Padrón from Spain, impressed the journalists by his color concept and received a special “Colors & Design” prize. As the finishing touch, the winner of the DS3 painted by R-M in Brilliant Red and finished with the new GLOSSCLEAR was announced. Now that the show car has completed its tour through Europe, it will return to its fans in Poland.