Good morning and welcome to the 25th AGM of OCCA SA: Surface Coatings Association of Southern Africa. Thank you for making time to attend this Annual General Meeting.

Your presence in attending this meeting shows commitment to OCCA and is greatly appreciated.

Once again, our AGM this year coincides with probably the greatest event on the South African Coatings Industry calendar, the Coatings for Africa Expo. We are honoured that together with our partners, the South African Paint Makers Association (SAPMA) and DMG Events we are able once more to present this event.

From the humble beginnings at a Drakensberg resort with the emphasis aimed at transferring knowledge by means of Technical Presentations, this expo has grown to one of the largest and influential on the African Continent.

That this expo has grown and adapted to the times and changes in communication styles is evident if we consider its present format.
This year for the first time we will not have the traditional technical papers presented.

The format of shorter Business Presentations by suppliers has been retained and 19 sessions over 2 days have been confirmed.

As of last week, we had almost 4000 visitors pre-registered on the CFA website, with the top three countries outside of SA being Nigeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

The total available floorspace is booked by 122 exhibitors. 58% are South African exhibitors, 30% are Chinese with the remaining 12% being other Internationals, from 10 countries in total.

This is compared to 54 exhibitors from 11 countries during the previous show in 2022.

We have seen that over the last few years, advances in the field of communication technology have brought the Coatings Chemist and Technician in direct contact with research done by global companies and Universities. This by means of online courses and interactive Webinars.

OCCA SA has also adapted to this and are holding online webinars on a variety of technical subjects.

We are part of an international organisation headquartered in the UK and active across the world through Divisions and Sections in Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Canada, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore.

We are continuously expanding the way in which OCCA is communicating with members and non-members through the OCCA website, www.occasa.org.za.

The OCCA website’s Members Area, both on our SA site as well as the OCCA UK site, is jam-packed with useful technical resources. Here you can get access to in-depth information and technical meetings on surface coating technologies from experts in their fields. Via the Members Area, you have access to recordings of previous webinars which have been presented, both by OCCA SA and OCCA UK. These presentations are of a high quality and of technical value. They contribute to our understanding of current and new technology within the coatings and related industries.

Thank you to the presenters who have given up their time and energies to present these subjects.

Last year we started a section in the Members Area of our website listing the Suppliers to our industry.  I must thank Jenny Jay, and Beverley van Niekerk for the work they have done and are still doing to update this list.

It is with great sadness that we have had to say goodbye to a stalwart within OCCA, Gerry Callan from Calcoat, who passed away in 2023. He will be sorely missed.
We also remember George Murchie who passed away only a week ago and who left deep marks in the companies where he worked as well as amongst the suppliers.

I would like to thank the OCCA members for their continued support of this very special Association. I encourage you to engage with your local OCCA Section committees with ideas to improve our Association and to contribute towards Technical Webinars and Section meetings.

I would also like to sincerely thank the OCCA SA committee for their dedication during the last year. It is encouraging to be supported by such professionalism within the organization. Everybody on the committee has made a contribution to the smooth running of OCCA SA, and I could not fulfil my function as VP without your support.

I have indicated that I will be available for another term as Vice President of OCCA SA Division and I hope to be working with you all for the next year.

Please take care in 2024/2025 and may we all enjoy the CFA expo which will kick of in the next hour.

Evert Bolt

Vice President, OCCA SA Division