Berger Paints India Ltd., controlled by the billionaire Dhingra family, is fortifying its business as India’s second-largest paintmaker seeks to fend off a challenge from deep-pocketed tycoons in the $8.2 billion sector.
The Kolkata-based company, with a nearly 20% revenue share among publicly listed peers, has identified two areas for what its Chief Executive Officer Abhijit Roy called an “insurgent act.”
Berger is strengthening teams in its weaker markets of Mumbai and Pune in the west, and Chennai and Bengaluru in the south, Roy said in an interview. The firm also plans to launch a new line of luxury paints, and add as many as 250 mostly exclusive outlets every year to take the count to 2,500 by March 2029.
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The company’s on the back foot after billionaires Kumar Mangalam Birla and Sajjan Jindal unleashed a pricing war to wrest business from it and sector leader Asian Paints Ltd., which controls over 50% market share. Birla Opus and Jindal’s JSW Dulux Ltd. are gaining ground, said brokerage PL Capital in a Sept 16 note. Berger’s shares are down about 16% this year compared to a 10% fall the nation’s benchmark measure.
The firm, valued at 525.4 billion rupees ($5.5 billion), is 64.56% owned by UK Paints India Pvt., which is controlled by Kuldip Singh Dhingra and his brother Gurbachan Singh Dhingra. The siblings acquired the business in 1991 from former liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. folded in 2012 after failing to pay creditors.
The nation’s No. 2 paints company is widening its distribution network and offering incentives to painters, builders and architects to drive sales. Berger is also investing 20 billion rupees to build manufacturing facilities in West Bengal and Odisha in the country’s east by 2029 and 2030, Roy said.
India’s paints sector is expected to grow about 5% to $11.8 billion by 2030, according to the IMARC Group, buoyed by urbanization, rising disposable incomes, and a country-wide growth in both commercial and residential real estate.
Still, the pricing pressure following aggressive discounts by newer rivals has crimped margins for both Berger Paints and Asian Paints. The Middle East conflict-led surge in crude prices has further clouded the outlook for listed players, including Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd. and JSW Dulux, formerly Akzo Nobel India.
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Given the current competitive dynamics, “holding on to our 20% market share is a solid baseline performance,” Roy said. “If market conditions align with our plans, we will push for an extra 0.5% gain nationally across all categories.”
Roy expects the festival season through Diwali in November to buoy demand and lift the full-year volume growth slightly to 8%, overcoming a slow start to the year and higher raw material prices. He also predicts an additional boost for the industrial paints segment from the country’s infrastructure buildout.
