JSW Paints, part of the JSW Group, is eyeing a capex of ₹750-1,000 crore over the next 2-3 years as it looks to up production capacities by 2,00,000 kilo litres per annum.

The company which is looking to set up its third plant — to cater to north and central Indian markets — is now exploring land parcels in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, says AS Sundaresan, Joint MD and CEO, JSW Paints. The plant will have both decorative and industrial paints segments.

A pan-India player now, its existing manufacturing facilities are located in Karnataka — for the decorative paints unit with a capacity of 1,00,000 kilo litres (kl) — while the industrial paints plant is located in Maharashtra and the present ramped up capacity is 50,000 kl, per annum. Nearly, ₹750 crore has already been invested across these existing facilities, which are greenfield ones.

According to him, funds would mostly be through internal resources, while “other options” are also open.

“We plan to have a market share of 8-10 per cent over the next three years and also increase our retail presence to 10,000 outlets (point of sales). In decorative, where there is headroom for growth, for organised players, we intend to double our turnover every year from this fiscal,” Sundaresan told businessline.

“While we have some scope of expansion in our existing plants, we would look at a greenfield facility in North/Central India to cater to these markets better. Funds are not an issue,” he added.

In India, Asian Paints continues to be the market leader dominating in the decorative paints segments, followed by Berger. Other major players include Kansai Nerolac, Akzo and Nobel India.

Expansion in decorative paints

In FY22, JSW Paints reported a turnover of ₹1,000 crore with nearly 60 per cent of it coming from the industrial paints division.

However, Sundareasan believes that given the increased growth opportunities in decorative paints, the number is expected to change over the next 2 – 3 years. Decorative is expected to contribute the lion’s share of 80 per cent.

For the top four players too, decorative continues to be the larger contributor of their turnover.

“We continue to be a full range player with offerings in economy, premium and luxury segments. While Covid did impact our expansion into Tier-I markets, we are now looking to increase the presence there,” he said.

In industrial paints, the company’s coil coatings vertical is already profitable and plans are afoot to increase offerings across other segments of industrial paints. Export markets like Africa and West Asia are also being explored.