JSW Paints Eyes Spot Among Top Three Players In The Country By 2025

JSW Paints, part of the $13-billion JSW Group, is eyeing a 10 per cent market share and a place among the top three decorative paints players in the country by 2025.

At present, JSW Paints has a market share of 1.5 per cent in the decorative segment and is targeting 3-4 per cent by the end of this financial year.

Parth Jindal, managing director, JSW Paints, said: “We would like to have an overall market share of 10 per cent in the decorative business and consolidate our position as a leading manufacturer of coil coatings in the industrial division.” “With a 10 per cent, JSW Paints would be among the top three,” he added.

Jindal believes by 2025 it would be achievable. However, in order to get there, JSW Paints would need a capacity of close to 1 million kilo litres (KL) per annum.

The top three players in the decorative segment are Asian Paints, Berger Paints, and Kansai Nerolac.

JSW Paints, currently, has a capacity of 115,000 KL per annum split between 90,000 KL in the decorative segment and 25,000 KL in the industrial segment. But it will step up capacity in the industrial segment to 60,000 KL and decorative to 150,000 KL.

JSW Paints, which is present in the south and west of the country, is looking to launch in the north and the east.

“We are expanding and becoming a pan-Indian player,” said Jindal.

The expansion would be funded through a mix of debt and equity.

JSW Steel said on Friday while announcing its results for the first quarter that its board had approved a strategic investment of approximately Rs 750 crore in JSW Paints in three-four tranches between this financial year and FY25.

In the first tranche of the strategic investment, JSW Steel will invest Rs 300 crore and subscribe to equity shares equivalent to approximately 6.88 per cent (on a fully diluted basis) of the issued and paid-up equity capital of JSW Paints during Q2 FY22.

Explaining the rationale behind JSW Steel’s investment, Jindal said JSW Steel’s coil coating capacity had increased from 700,000 tonnes to 2.7 million tonnes.

It also acquired Asian Colour Coated and Bhushan Power & Steel, both of which have colour-coating facilities. “The requirement of coil coatings for JSW Steel has gone up,” he said.

JSW Paints is supplying over 90 per cent of JSW Steel’s paint requirements. The steel major is looking to secure coil coating supplies for its colour-coated steel, a downstream value-added product.

The investment from JSW Steel will be sufficient for undertaking capacity expansion at the existing JSW Paints facilities, but the paints company has plans of adding new facilities, for which it will have to raise debt.

JSW Paints is evaluating options between Salboni in West Bengal, Punjab, and Maharashtra for its next facility, which will cater to the decorative segment. It now has an automated coil coatings facility at Vasind, Maharashtra, and an automated water-based decorative paints facility at Vijayanagar, Karnataka.

JSW Paints had a turnover of Rs 430.48 crore for the year ended March 31, 2021. This year, it is eyeing Rs 1,100 crore. “Our strategy is to grow the topline now,” said Jindal.

The company is looking to break even in FY23 and turn profitable by FY24.