Birla Opus paints' chief executive officer (CEO) Rakshit Hargave said on Tuesday that while the decorative paints segments is going through a slowdown, it is part of a cycle that is expected to eventually reverse. Hargave added that the company is on track to finish FY25 with a "high single-digit" market share, as paint makers compete to corner more market share over multiple quarters of slow sales.
Industry analysts have expressed concerns about poor sales growth for decorative paints in India for the October-December quarter, despite a longer wedding and festival season. The market leader, Asian Paints, reported a 1.6 percent year-on-year growth in its decorative segment, with the company's leadership noting a marked slowdown in urban areas, as cycles have lengthened in the repainting segment.
"In the last six to nine months, there has been a slowdown. You can get the feeling from the dealers that the offtake has been slower than what it used to be, and the slowdown is more pronounced in the urban markets than the Tier-II or rural markets. But everybody believes that in paints, this is only a cycle, if the trend of the past 10-15 years is seen. It is part of a trough, where the cycle is at its lowest. We believe that it will recover, and it will do so very soon. We have to see at the end of this quarter if there has been a recovery, and maybe the market is slightly better. But we may have to wait a quarter or two to see whether the recovery is really happening," Hargave said at a media roundtable.
He added that Grasim's board will decide at an "appropriate time" on classifying earnings from the paints business separately in the company's financial results, with Hargave pointing out that Opus is yet to start operating at full capacity. While the company has operationalised five out of its plants, it is planning to start full commercial production at its Kharagpur plant in West Bengal within the first two quarters of FY26. The Kharagpur plant's completion was largely hindered by inclement weather conditions.
Including allied costs such as marketing and dealer onboarding, Aditya Birla Group-owned Grasim has committed Rs 10,000 crore to its paints business, for a total capacity of 1.332 billion litres per year, with Birla Opus having articulated a goal to challenge Asian Paints for market leadership.
Hargave said that the first year of operations has turned out "more or less" to the level that the company had envisaged. He added that while the company has gained market share from a number of key players in the sector, it has gained more share from Asian Paints than the others. Grasim has planned to break even within three years after starting full-scale operations in its paints business, that is, with all six plants being in production commercially.
Asked as to whether the leadership remains confident of the break-even timeline, Hargave added the company has a "good grip" on the strategy, while not having a "crystal ball" to see the future ahead of the market, and retaining a sense of agility to navigate the market effectively.
Hargave was speaking after inaugurating one of Birla Opus' company-owned and operated paint studios in Worli, Mumbai, designed as an "experience centre" for potential customers, as well as for affiliated designers. The company has opened other experience centres in cities like Navi Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and elsewhere.
As for the company's dealer onboarding mission, Hargave said that Birla Opus is "very close" to its goal of getting 50,000 dealers on board by the end of FY25. He added that while the company will focus on adding new dealers to the network, it will also work to increase throughput per dealer in the next year, noting that dealers are sitting on "apt" levels of stocks, ensuring better returns on capital employed.
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