The Sajjan Jindal led JSW Group has decided to foray into the paint segment and is investing Rs 1,000 crore to build two factories. The company, JSW Paints, is targeting an April 2018 launch.
“We are planning to launch in April of next year. We have one factory coming up in Vijaynagar in Karnataka and one industrial line coming up in Vasind in Maharashtra,” said Parth Jindal, who is looking after the business. He said JSW Paints is a fully family-owned entity and the two plants are coming up at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, which will be funded through both debt and equity.
The paint segment in India is primarily dominated by Asian Paints. However, the family, which already runs JSW Steel and JSW Cement, is looking at the paint segment as a lucrative business because of the complementarities. “We have the cement and steel distribution already in place. We have the opportunity to become one-stop solution where we can offer cement, steel and paint to consumer,” said Jindal. The company will focus on both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C), he said, adding that it will be doing a decorative unit in Vijaynagar, while the Vasind unit will focus on industrial segment.
Jindal said the company has started work on both the factories and expects them to be ready by early 2018, and it will make its market presence by April or May, after testing the products. The company is looking to have a capacity of 1 million KLPA by 2025. At present, Asian Paints’ capacity is 1 million kilolitres per annum while the total market is 2.5 million KLPA. For Jindal the initial focus will be on the southern and the western markets; the company is also looking at installing capacity in West Bengal in the next few years. “We are very excited by the potential of the business and we understand the retail business a little bit because of cement. I think there is huge opportunity for us, a new entrant to do well,” he said.
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