ADVERTISEMENT

JSW Group Bets On Paints Business, Eyes 10% Market Share By 2025

JSW Paints aims to be among the top three paint brands in India by 2025.

Open tins of red paint pass along the production line inside the Akzo Nobel NV paint and coatings factory in Sassenheim, Netherlands. (Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg)
Open tins of red paint pass along the production line inside the Akzo Nobel NV paint and coatings factory in Sassenheim, Netherlands. (Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg)

Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group, which is one of India’s largest steelmakers, is now betting on the paints business.

JSW Paints, part of the $13-billion JSW Group, said it will manufacture and market both industrial coatings as well as decorative paints. The company said it has already set up two manufacturing facilities with an initial investment of Rs 600 crore—one in Vijayanagar, Karnataka with 1,00,000-kilolitre annual capacity for the decorative paints business and a 25,000-kl coil coating facility in Vasind, Maharashtra.

JSW Paints, which aims to be among the top three paint brands in India by 2025 with a market share of 10 percent, said it will commence its operations starting in the southern and western regions by the end of second quarter of financial year 2019-20, with plans to be a pan-India player within the next three years.

The company is also planning to double its capacity over the next two years. “Over the next 18 months, the company will invest an additional Rs 500 crore to double the existing capacity having a revenue potential of Rs 4,000 crore,” Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Paints, said. The company, he said, aims to open two more manufacturing facilities in the eastern and northern markets, taking its overall capacity to 1 million kl per annum by 2025.

Nearly three quarters of India’s paint industry is in the organised space with Asian Paints having a market share of more than 50 percent, according to industry estimates.

Jindal, however, is unfazed by the competition. “The Indian paint industry has doubled from Rs 25,000 crore seven years back to now over Rs 50,000 crore and is poised for strong growth over the next five years” he said. “In the absence of any major group, we see an opportunity to become a significant player and take market share away from established players.”

The company is betting on the strategy of pricing every colour at one price. “Today when you go to buy paint in the market you are charged different rates for different colours,” Jindal said. “This is the first time an Indian paint company is bringing such pricing transparency to Indian customers.”