Back To Black: JSW Paints aims to break even in the decorative segment in the next two quarters

AS Sundaresan, Jt. MD and CEO, JSW Paints

On track to complete four years of operation in April 2023, JSW Paints has managed to make room for itself in the competitive paints market. “We recorded sales of approximately Rs 1,100 crore in FY22. It is the fastest any paint company has reached Rs 1,000 crore,” said Joint MD and CEO AS Sundaresan in an interview to Moneycontrol. In FY21, the company's revenue was Rs 430 crore, as per reports.

“We aim to double year-on-year,” he said. That means sales of Rs 2,200 crore in FY23, but he did not confirm the numbers.

The company’s revenue sees equal contribution from both the industrial and the decorative paints segments. In the industrial segment, coil coatings is the bigger piece of the pie. “Today, we are certainly the largest coil coating player in India. We are the first Indian company to have developed our own technology in this segment and commercialised it,” Sundaresan added.

For coatings, Asian Paints has a tie up with US-based PPG, while Berger Paints collaborates with Beckers, of Germany. JSW Paints has still not ventured into the automotive paints segment, unlike its listed peers.

Decorative fortunes

The company’s main focus is to grow the decorative segment aggressively. “We are operating with a start-up mindset. We are looking to build a paints company of the future,” said the top boss.

Its unique selling proposition is — Any Colour, One Price. This is not the industry norm. Bigwigs like Asian Paints and Berger Paints charge differently due to the various pigments that come from different sources.

Also Read: Up and coming competitors are not a worry for Asian Paints, says Saurabh Mukherjea
According to Sundaresan, other brands charge consumers 5-15 percent more. Catering to the economy as well as premium segments, the company’s lowest price point starts from Rs 80 / litre, and goes up to Rs 1,000 / litre.

Naturally, the three-year old company has some working capital debt, and it is looking to break-even in the decorative segment in the next two quarters. “However, we are already profitable at the company level as well as in the industrial segment,” Sundaresan clarified.

Reaching customers

The company has a capacity of 100 million litres in the decorative segment with a utilisation of 50 percent, while it has a 50-million-litre capacity in the industrial segment with a utilisation of 70 percent. Asian Paints, which has the lion’s share of the market, has a total capacity of 1,700 million litres. Meanwhile, Grasim is eyeing to launch its paint business by FY24 with a production of 1,300 million litres.

Competition is tough and JSW Paints has to fight tooth-and-nail for market share. The company has 75 depots and about 5,000 retailers across India.

Also Read: Will Grasim drain Asian Paints’ moat?

Apart from the Any Colour, One Price strategy, to make itself visible on the retailer’s shelves, the company is also highlighting other aspects of the product, like better market coverage than competitors, low volatile organic content (VOC), and reliable finish.

“We don’t dump our stock on retailers. We have a very compact range packed with several features. For instance, we don’t have separate ranges for anti-microbial and odour-free and sheen-finish. We pack many features in one. So, retailers can manage with less stock,” said Sundaresan.

Once they run out of stock, the company can service fresh orders within a few hours, or 1-2 days at most, he added.

“We aim to grab 5-10 percent of the market in the next 3-5 years,” concluded Sundaresan.