Industry observers are placing significant bets on the decorative cement sector, with expectations of it reaching Rs 1 lakh crore within the next five years. Aditya Birla Group’s newly launched paints venture, Birla Opus, aims to secure the second position in the decorative paints market, targeting a high-single-digit market share by the end of FY25. Himanshu Kapania, the group’s Director, made these remarks during a post-launch conference with the media on February 22.
“We anticipate achieving a high-single-digit market share by the end of the upcoming financial year,” stated Kapania. These remarks coincide with the group’s plans to increase industry capacity by 40% once all six plants commence production.
Earlier on February 22, Kumar Mangalam Birla, the group’s chairman, inaugurated three plants located in Haryana, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu. The remaining three plants, situated in Chamarajanagar in Karnataka, Mahad in Maharashtra, and Kharagpur in West Bengal, are scheduled to begin production throughout FY25.
The group is intensifying its efforts to dominate the decorative paints market, driven by strong demand anticipated from the infrastructure and housing sectors. “Our housing sector is poised to nearly double the efforts of the past decade by adding 80 million homes,” stated Birla during his speech.
According to a June report from brokerage Nuvama, as of 2023, Asian Paints leads the Indian paints industry with a 53 percent market share, followed by Berger (approximately 19 percent) and Kansai Nerolac (about 12 percent).
“During the launch, Birla stated, ‘In our very first year of operation, our capacity will exceed the combined current capacity of the second, third, and fourth largest players in the industry.’ Additionally, for the second phase, the company plans to add further capacity. ‘We are also prepared to augment our capacity by nearly 500 million litres per annum (MLPA) at our existing locations in the next phase, and at a significantly lower incremental capital cost,’ he added.”
By 2023, Asian Paints’ capacity had reached 1,700 million litres per annum (MLPA). According to reports, Berger Paints intends to boost its capacity to 1,100 million litres from the current 620 MLPA. Additionally, Kansai Nerolac plans to invest Rs 290 crore to enhance its current capacity of MLPA.
While the existing players maintain a presence in the industrial paints market, the Birla Group has no intentions to enter other markets. “We are focusing on consumer-facing business, which is a mandate for every business,” stated Birla.
The Aditya Birla Group company aims to achieve gross revenue of Rs 10,000 crore within three years of commencing full-scale operations.
