JSW Group, promoted by Sajjan Jindal, is entering the highly competitive organised paints business with JSW Paints, thus diversifying into the consumer-facing business. The company, JSW Paints, will manufacture and market both decorative as well as industrial paints. In the decorative paints segment, the company will offer a complete range of only water-based paints for interior and exterior walls, wood and metal. The company has been set up with an investment of Rs 600 crore.
“We have taken the path-breaking step to offer any-colour-one-price for the first time in India. We hope to be the preferred choice of millennial couples,” said Parth Jindal, MD – JSW Paints, in a press note. It is expected that the strategy of adopting ‘any-colour-one price’ will disrupt the market that is known for fixing prices based on colour and serve as its USP. The company believes that this pricing model will usher in price transparency besides ensuring consumers great value. “Pricing paints based on colour is specific to the Indian market, and the company will break this trend,” said Jindal. The new entrant’s ‘Colourvista’ is a curated portfolio of over 1,800 shades, all priced at Rs 477 per litre. At present it has four colour ranges – Halo, Aurus, Pixa and Auqaglo.
The commercial launch will be from Karnataka, starting with Bengaluru and Hubbali, and the company aims to start business in a new major southern city every month. It expects to complete the roll-out in south and west markets by end of the second quarter of FY’20 with plans to be a pan-India player within three years. JSW Paints has set up a 100,000 kilolitre per annum plant in Vijayanagar in Karnataka and a 25,000 kilolitre per annum coil coatings facility at Vasind in Maharashtra (for industrial paints). Both these units are touted to be environment-friendly and zero liquid discharge units.
According to the company it will deploy a hub-and-spoke model to build its retail network. It will have five hubs in each state to service 100-200 dealers in paint tinting. This will reduce dealers’ cost, and they will have to display only sample packs. “We will create out ‘tinting spokes’ near dealer locations, so dealers will be freed from having to do tinting. From here, we will either supply to the dealers or maybe even directly to customers. JSW will work on generating demand while dealers will have the sample cans,” said S Sundaresan, JMD and CEO -JSW Paints.
JSW Paints is aiming for revenue of Rs 600 crore in FY’20, Rs 1,200 crore in FY’21, and Rs 2,000 crore in FY’22, said Jindal. “We want a split of 75% from decorative, 25% from industrial, and a 5% market share by FY’22,” he remarked. It aims to be among top three brands in India by 2025 with a market share of 10%. According to industry estimates, India’s organised paints market is expected to cross Rs 50,000 crore in value by 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 15%.
