Panipat: Aditya Birla Group expects its new paints business to turn profitable in three years, chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said, as the conglomerate marked its entry into the rapidly expanding ₹80,000-crore Indian decorative paints market.
“Our vision is ambitious and our initial goal is clear—to clock revenues of ₹10,000 crore and become profitable not later than the third year of full-scale operations,” Birla said on Thursday at an event to launch the group’s paints brand, Birla Opus.
Birla Opus products will be available in Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu from mid-March and in towns with populations of at least 100,000 by July 2024. The company aims to expand distribution of its paints business to over 6,000 towns by the end of FY25.
The paints business, launched under the group’s flagship business Grasim Industries, has commenced operations of three plants—in Haryana’s Panipat, Ludhiana in Punjab, and Cheyyar in Tamil Nadu.
Grasim Industries has committed investments of ₹10,000 crore for its decorative paints business, with plans to establish a total of six manufacturing plants across India by 2025.
It has so far invested ₹5,000 crore. The rest of the investments will be made in three more plants that will come up in Chamarajanagar in Karnataka, Mahad in Maharashtra, and Kharagpur in West Bengal, which will commence production over the course of FY25.
With the six plants, the company will have a total capacity of 1,332 million litres per annum.
“No paint company globally has ever launched in one shot—factories, operations, products, and services—at the scale that we are about to undertake,” Birla said.
As for Vodafone Idea Ltd, in which the Aditya Birla Group is a joint venture partner, Birla said the telecom company was making progress in roping in an investor.
“We are making good progress but can’t put in a timeline. We remain very committed to Vodafone Idea and like we have said in public domain, efforts are on to get outside investors,” Birla said.
The board of Vodafone Idea will meet on 27 February to consider fundraising proposals, the company said in an exchange filing today.
Proposals for fundraising could be considered via a rights issue, a further public offer, private placement of shares including a preferential allotment, a qualified institutional placement, or any other permissible mode, the company said.
It added that options to raise funds via global or American depository receipts or bonds, including foreign currency convertible bonds, convertible debentures, and warrants, are also being considered.
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Published: 22 Feb 2024, 06:56 PM IST