Report: Official Opening / General Assembly 59th FEIBP Congress, Leipzig

A. Official Opening 59th FEIBP congress / 7 September 2017

1. Welcome by FEIBP President Thorsten Stollberg

President Thorsten Stollberg welcomes all those Brushware colleagues who made the journey to Leipzig.

Some organisational remarks regarding the visit to the Porsche factory (pacemakers have to be switched off!) and the maximum capacity of the Cross golf team building event, for which the bus is kindly sponsored by Perlon.

In the room are representatives of DS Commodities Ltd and Loewert Industries sas and they will announce their merger officially at the occasion of the Brush Forum. Thorsten is looking forward to a rewarding and enjoyable congress and opens the congress.

2. Welcome to Leipzig, Germany

Dieter Lessmann, President Verband der Deutschen Pinsel- und Bürstenhersteller E.V., is proud to welcome participants from 11 countries and 3 continents.

Dieter is most grateful to both Thorsten and Carmen Stollberg, the main organisers of this Leipzig congress.

A warm applause by the audience for Carmen and Thorsten followed the words by Dieter.

3. Greetings from ABMA

ABMA President Carlos Petzold has German ancestors, in fact his grandfather was born in Leipzig, a king shepherd, and his father 94 years ago in Stuttgart, a master butcher. Born in the USA himself , as current ABMA President Carlos is proud to bring greetings from the USA to this family rooted city of Leipzig.

Milestones in 2017: ABMA 100 years and Wistoba also 100 years!

ABMA was most honoured to receive an ancient rococo silver plate, found by Suzanna Acquaderni and a offered by FEIBP. A beautiful present of everlasting beauty and prosperity.

A docudrama film on the USA brushware industry was released and can be found on the ABMA website. A link for FEIBP will be provided and the film will be recognisable for Europe, as Carlos knows that ABMA and FEIBP members are very similar in character and it is about global business. Carlos is looking forward to another great FEIBP congress.

4. First time attendees

The following new attendees shortly introduced themselves

• Osborn International GmbH / Dennis Schlaf

• ROTH Composite Machinery GmbH / Thomas Halbrucker

• Denroy Plastics Ltd. / John Rainey

• Wöhler Brush Tech GmbH / Jürgen Tabert

• Da Vinci Künstlerpinselfabrik Defet GmbH / Julian Rottner Defet

• Gregor Deffner GmbH / Michaela Deffner-Wagner

5. Re-positioning FEIBP

Peter Langenegger and Alessandro Acquaderni, members of the Working Group Re-positioning did take the meeting through the ongoing improvements of our digital environment. The website was launched two years ago and now the closed sections for a.o. the working groups with chat box opportunities, more language versions, expanding the Brushpedia section and better sponsorship exposure are priorities. Google Analytics is 2 weeks functioning and this will lead to useful information for the further (user-friendly) improvements of the website. Any suggestions or comments regarding the FEIBP website are to be addressed to the FEIBP General Manager.

6. 10th Innovation Award

The following competitors gave a presentation on their innovation award application:

• Da Vinci Künstlerpinsel DEFET GmbH (Germany): Travel brushes

• Zahn Pinsel GmbH (Germany): Brush line for cake decoration

• Ebnat AG (Switzerland): Tongue cleaner

• Osborn Int. GmbH (Germany): Osborn & Dronco Spark Suppressor

All congress delegates are entitled to vote for one of these innovations, a ballot paper will be distributed at the Brush Forum and there is a special box for collecting all the votes. The winner will be announced at the General Assembly.

7. Key note speaker Jörg Heynkes (Germany)

Subject “The most important innovations in the coming 260 weeks”

A challenging and inspiring presentation, which can be found by a special link on the FEIBP congress website.

B. General Assembly 59th FEIBP congress / 8 September 2017

1. Opening

President Thorsten Stollberg opens this General Assembly

2. Working Groups

a. Working Group Technical Brushes

Chairman Alessandro Acquaderni reports on a long and interesting working group meeting with the following items:

• EN 1083 1 + 2 Standard Power driven brushes

• Development safety leaflet

• Installment official FEIBP WG TB with active member manufacturers

• Economic outlook: Q1 / 2017 generally good – Q2 / 2017 fairly well, stable

• Website: private area – closed section with chatbox

b. Working Group Paintbrushes

Chairman Alessandro Civiero reports on a very interactive meeting:

• Presentation and discussion on the Bechhofen education programme paintbrush manufacturing

• Exchange of views (manufacturers and suppliers) on developments raw materials market, shift from bristle to alternatives

• Development website section

• Economic outlook: not a unanimous view, big differences between companies and markets

c. Working Group Professional Hygiene Charter

Chairman Philip Coward reports:

The PHB group continues to thrive, and we now have 24 registered companies from 8 countries. We have had one company leave the group, because they have gone out of business, but we have had 2 more companies join in recent months.

A PHB Working Group meeting was held in London on the 5th May and another yesterday morning. Both were well attended and productive.

The matters discussed were the revised FEIBP Statutes, a Declaration of Compliance document, and a Customer Instruction leaflet. These matters have been finalised and will now be actioned. In addition the definition for the Charter was extended to cover plastic handles.

The French, Italian, German and Dutch versions version of the PHB section of the FEIBP website are being produced, and also French, Italian, German and Dutch versions of the Declaration of Compliance.

We are very pleased with the work of the website working group, and especially the fact that we will have a private page for PHB registered companies. We have documents such as the Certificate of Conformity, which should only be available to the registered companies. Also, we need to make sure that the logo is only downloadable from the private part of the website in future, and this will then prevent some of the misuse of the logo by non-registered companies.

The PHB Charter continues to attract new applicants, but we have also had another situation with an unauthorised company using the logo. The logo is a registered with the EU as a trade mark. We do rely on the members informing us of any transgressions, because the Charter and logo are self-policed.

d. Working Group Personal Care

The new Working Group area under the helm of chairman Christopher Boomer,who was happy to welcome 13 participants, including 3 manufacturers. A good start to discuss expectations and aims of this new area: which companies can be involved and which products are in the scope. The new working area could be attractive for companies not yet FEIBP member.

3. Raw Materials

The market reports are presented:

• Steel wire, by Holger Kruse, (Gustav Wolf GmbH)

• Vegetable Fibres by Urte Rietdorf (Friedrich Platt GmbH)

• Bristles by Reinhold Hörz (DKSH Switzerland Ltd)

• Fine Hair by Mark Samuel (Mark Samuel Trading Co.Ltd.)

• Synthetics by Andrew McIlroy (Perlon)

All presentations are published on the FEIBP congress website.

4. Annual report FEIBP

The general manager Fons Ceelaert reports on the FEIBP activities since the 58th congress in Edinburgh.

The annual report is published on the FEIBP website

5. Finance

Treasurer Andrea Acquaderni presents the overview of the financial situation of our federation.

FEIBP has safe assets and sufficient reserves, build up over a series of years. The extras out of congress profits and profit share Interbrush are main reasons for the increase of the reserves.

The aim of the board is to establish a balanced financial situation excluding the extras.

We are happy to have welcomed new members in recent years and this trend should be continued and efforts in this field will be made. New members add to this aim of a balanced financial situation.

There is no proposal to increase the subscription fees for the year 2018. The meeting shows appreciation for the financial information.

6. 10th FEIBP Innovation Award

The result of the 10th Innovation Award is announced by the general manager:

1. Ebnat AG (Switzerland): Tongue cleaner

2. Zahn Pinsel GmbH (Germany): Brush line for cake decoration

3. Da Vinci Künstlerpinsel DEFET GmbH (Germany): Travel brushes

4. Osborn Int. GmbH (Germany): Osborn & Dronco Spark Suppressor

Peter Langenegger receives the first prize plate from President Thorsten Stollberg.

7. FEIBP officers 2017 - 2019

The following officers were elected for a term of two years (2017 -2019):

Peter Langenegger (Switzerland), President Thorsten Stollberg (Germany),Past President Andrea Acquaderni (Italy), Treasurer

The position of vice-President is vacant and the FEIBP board is actively looking for candidates. The FEIBP board will enter a “transition period”, with the aim to make room gradually for the younger generation.

As already mentioned in the annual report this General Assembly is the final act for Thorsten as our President, serving the federation with enthousiasm and leadership for two years.

The meeting again gave Thorsten a big applause and this was the same for the new President Peter Langenegger, who is honoured to be the successor of Thorsten and very committed to dedicate his time to FEIBP.

8. 60th FEIBP Congress, 26 – 28 September 2018, Bordeaux (France)

Hosted by the French federation FFB and first announcements were made by Pierre Simler and Danièle Quemper, showing a video of beautiful Bordeaux. The congress hotel is located in the city centre of Bordeaux, which is now a restored and wonderful city. It takes two hours by TGV from Paris.

Pierre touches at a European fact: 800 years ago Bordeaux was owned by the King of England, in fact a first Brexit took place!

FFB will give full effort to offer another great FEIBP congress.

9. Any other business

No issues were raised.

10. Closure

Famous last words (as President): Meeting closed!

FEIBP Congress Website

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