JSW Paints, a part of conglomerate JSW Group, is pinning hopes on the festive season for revival and expects demand for paints to pick up after September.
"We understand that business was impacted and everything was on a standstill due to COVID-19 lockdown but we are hoping that post September things will settle down, monsoon will also be over and Diwali painting will start in the houses," said AS Sundaresan, Joint Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, JSW Paints.
However, Sundaresan refrained from disclosing on how much losses JSW Paints had to suffer due to COVID-19 lockdown.
On question of tepid demand for paints during the monsoon season, Sundaresan said: "Even during monsoon the internal paintings of houses and offices continues. So the demand for paint will remain but not as strong as other seasons."
Speaking about labour shortage, Sundaresan said that most of the labourers of JSW Paints were local labourers so they did not face the shortage.
Currently, JSW Paints competes with dominant players such as Asian Paints, Kansai Nerolac and Berger Paints.
The Indian Paint Industry is estimated to be Rs 50,000 crore industry.
JSW Paints manufactures and markets both industrial coatings and decorative paints, offering all the colours at one price to compete with the existing players.
In terms of innovation during COVID-19, JSW Paints has launched anti-bacterial paint called JSW Paints Halo Safe Home.
Anti-bacterial paints are already launched by competitors by Asian Paints and Berger Paints, however, Sundaresan claims that those paints are just for wall, while JSW Paints has launched anti-bacterial paints for all three surfaces – Wall, Wood & Metal.
When asked on the pricing of anti-bacterial paint compared to its competitors, Sundaresan was quick to add that their paints are 15-20 percent priced lower than that of its competitors.
Growth Path
JSW Group which started its paint business in April 2019, aims to achieve a share of 5 percent in the decorative paints market, within three years, and double it to 10 percent within five years, Sundaresan.
Over the next three years, the company led by Parth Jindal has set a target of taking the revenue of JSW Paints in the range of Rs 2,000-2,500 crore.
JSW Paints launched its paints business in the south and west in 2019 and it intends to expand pan India by 2022.
Currently, JSW Paints are available in the five southern States and Maharashtra. It has covered the entire western region so far. In the next fiscal JSW Paints products will be available in the northern and eastern markets and pan-India in three years.
In terms of its plants, Sundaresan said the company has two plants and they do not intend to expand it so far.
A plant for industrial coil coating was started at Vasind with an annual capacity of 25,000 KL, while a water-based decorative paint plant with 100,000 KL annual capacity was opened at Vijayanagar in September 2019.
New Launches
Considering the high demand for sanitisers, JSW Paints partly converted one of its plants to manufacture sanitisers.
The company rolled out the sanitiser brand called Securall in May, manufactured at its facility at Vasind in Maharashtra. Initially it will be launched across south and west markets in 500 ML pack size.
JSW Paints is also contemplating a launch of paint fragrance Halo Fresh if the test is successful.
“Halo Fresh is still in the testing stage in certain cities, if successful we will launch it across regions,” Sundaresan said.
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