Berger Paints will invest ₹2,000 crore to set up two greenfield manufacturing plants in eastern India that is expected to boost the company’s installed capacity by an additional 25-30 per cent.
“Our upcoming greenfield project at Panagarh, Bengal, is progressing well. We are in the process of receiving all necessary approvals and the construction activity is about to start. We expect commissioning by end 2025,” said Berger Paints India chairman Kuldip Singh Dhingra at the company’s 100th AGM on Monday.
“We have been allotted about 80 acres by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation in the district of Khurdha to set up a manufacturing unit for paints, intermediates and allied products. The company plans to put up a modern technology–based environmentally sustainable unit for manufacture of paints, coatings, construction chemicals, intermediates, including emulsions, resins and related products on the land,” the chairman said.
While the Bengal plant would involve a capital spend of around ₹600 crore, the Odisha plant is estimated to have a capital spend of around ₹1,400 crore and is expected to be commissioned by mid 2027.
“We have three factories in Bengal and we are heavily invested in the state. Panagarh will be an industrial and construction chemical-oriented plant. We have a decorative paints plant unit at Rishra in Bengal and we would shift the manufacturing operations from Howrah and move it to Panagarh,” said Abhijit Roy, MD and CEO, Berger Paints India.
“The Odisha plant would be a fully integrated one,” he said.
“Almost 25-30 per cent additional capacity will be built up because of the two plants,” Roy said. According to the annual report, the production capacity of the company was around 1.5 million kilo litres in FY24. Roy also said that the company is eyeing a topline of ₹20,000 crore by 2029.
“It took us almost 100 years to touch ₹10,000 crore and the another ₹10,000 is expected in the next 6 years,” Roy said.
“It has been a long journey from one factory in Howrah and one office in Chowringhee to become the second largest paint company in India and the 4th largest in Asia. Last 3 years we have been gaining market share by about 0.5-0.6 per cent year on year,” Roy said. The company had a market share of 20.9 per cent as of Q1FY25.
However raw material inflation is a concern and the company has already taken 2.5 per cent increase in prices this year to partly neutralise the rising prices of raw materials like methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate which impacted emulsions.
