Axalta Coating Systems has announced plans to change its organisational structure, in a bid to more closely align its global organisation with its two global business segments to drive improved performance.
The realignment follows the restructuring programme announced over the northern summer and, together, the two initiatives are part of the company’s ongoing programme to increase organisational effectiveness and enable growth.
For the last seven years, Axalta says it has operated in a “dynamic matrix organisation” structure consisting of regional leadership, global commercial business leadership and global functions where regional leadership had primary financial responsibility. The company says it now plans to simplify the structure to further empower global business units with full profit and loss responsibilities.
“With today’s announcement, primary decision-making authority will reside with business unit leadership, supported by regional leadership and our global functions,” said Robert Bryant, President and CEO at Axalta. “These changes are expected to increase accountability, accelerate decision making and improve execution, as well as support our objective to drive operational performance for sustainable growth and shareholder value creation.”
“Axalta’s strategic review completed in March provided us with valuable insights into areas where we had the opportunity to simplify and streamline our decision-making processes. Aligning our organisation more directly with our businesses will enable us to focus on our customers and better support our growth objectives in each of our markets.”
As a part of the realignment, Axalta will close its Center City Philadelphia offices. Employees will move to either the new global headquarters at its existing offices in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, or to Axalta’s Global Innovation Center in the Philadelphia Navy Yard with key technical staff.
“Bringing together our corporate, business and technology teams will foster increased collaboration, accelerate innovation and enhance operational efficiency,” Bryant added.
Axalta says its regional headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and Shanghai, China, will continue to play important roles in the day-to-day management of the company’s people and resources, as key business leadership at both regional and global headquarters will be strengthened as part of this process. Business leaders across the company’s four end-markets within its Performance Coatings and Transportation Coatings segments will assume responsibility for strategy and execution with full accountability for financial results.
The organisational realignment will take effect from 1 January 2021, and the Philadelphia office moves will occur in the middle of the year.