Birla Opus, the newest player in India’s Rs 70,000-crore domestic decorative paints market, aims to achieve Rs 10,000 crore in revenue and become profitable within three years of its launch. Within six months, the company has expanded its distribution network to over 300 towns with populations exceeding 100,000, industry sources told the sources.
Initially launching in northern markets like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi, Birla Opus has now expanded to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. This expansion strategy includes participating in trade expos, offering free paint tinting machines to dealers, and pricing products 15-20% lower than market leader Asian Paints, the sources revealed.
Asian Paints, holding over 50% of the domestic decorative paints market, concluded FY24 with consolidated net sales of Rs 35,382 crore and a net profit of Rs 5,460 crore, marking 3% and 33% growth, respectively, over the previous year.
Birla Opus has synchronized its distribution expansion with increased manufacturing. CEO Rakshit Hargave of Birla Opus, Aditya Birla Group, stated that three new plants in Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Mahad (Maharashtra), and Kharagpur (West Bengal) are set to start operations in the second, third, and fourth quarters of FY25, respectively. “Our plan is to open franchisees in 300 towns and expand our presence in 6,000 towns by the end of FY25,” he said. The company’s new advertising campaign, “Make Life Beautiful,” launched in June, has received positive feedback from consumers and the trade community.
Since its inception in February, with three plants in Panipat (Haryana), Ludhiana (Punjab), and Cheyyar (Tamil Nadu), Birla Opus has invested Rs 10,000 crore in these facilities. Over the past year, companies like JK Cement, Astral Pipes, online B2B platform Infra.Market, and Pidilite Industries have entered the domestic paints market to capitalize on its growth. JSW Group, which entered the paints market in 2019, achieved Rs 2,000 crore in revenue and turned profitable in FY24, according to industry executives.
“There is a significant infrastructure, housing, and home improvement push happening in the country,” said Deven Choksey, managing director of Mumbai-based brokerage KR Choksey Holdings. “Most of the new entrants operate in the building materials space. Paints is an adjacency that allows them to drive synergies and leverage a common distribution network.”
In February, the Aditya Birla Group announced that its entry into the paints market was a natural extension of its white cement business. The paints venture will enable it to produce emulsions for water-based paints and resins for solvent-based paints in-house.