By Damir Gagro. IRL, a market research company, estimates that the Italian paints and coatings market has a volume of 1.23 million tonnes worth EUR 3.4 billion, with water-borne systems accounting for 58.5% of the volume. The majority of water-borne systems are found in the decorative and architectural paints segment. Since the Italian market is very fragmented, obtaining representative and reliable figures is a major challenge. This is no doubt due to the large number of companies active in this segment. Market experts estimate that there are close to 600 manufacturers of decorative and architectural paints. ...