Expect healthy volume growth in decorative biz: Berger

Abhijit Roy, MD of Berger Paints expects a double-digit growth for the company's decorative business.

Berger Paints' fourth quarter net profit rose lower-than-expected 4 percent year-on-year to Rs 51 crore. 
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Roy says the industrial segment of the business did not perform well in the fourth quarter, which weighed on the numbers.
"The industrial side has seen some recovery especially the automotive and the infrastructure side that were badly affected. We hope that the volume growth will be better in those two lines as well," he says. Below is the verbatim transcript of Abhijit Roy's interview on CNBC-TV18. Q: Your consolidated revenue was up 8 percent for the quarter. Are you seeing difficulties in striking out volume growth, is the market sluggish?
A: Slightly sluggish. On the industrial side, it was quite bad in fourth quarter. The decorative side was okay. We had a reasonable double digit volume growth but the industrial side pulled us down a bit. Q: Going into the next couple of quarters, what do you expect to see even in terms of industry wide volume growth? What will be the impact of sluggish volume momentum on your margins?
A: As far as the decorative business is concerned, the volume growth will be reasonable and will continue at a good pace. I don't think there is any worry on that count. The industrial side has seen some recovery especially the automotive and the infrastructure side were badly affected. But of late, there is some traction and we hope that the volume growth will be better in those two lines as well. Q: Any internal target for Berger Paints? Last quarter you did quite well. This time, are you more cautious going into FY14?
A: Last year, first quarter was also very good and the base is quite large but we presume that going by current trend, we should be doing reasonably well. Possibly on the higher side, definitely double digit growth for the decorative business line. As far as industrial business line is concerned, there is some hope of it improving its performance. We should be doing reasonably well.