Birla Opus, the paints venture of the Aditya Birla group, is offering nearly double the amount of price-offs or discounts on products, at 6-7%, compared to rivals such as Asian Paints and Berger, whose price discounts are at about 3-4% on its products, trade and industry sources have told FE.
The pricing action by Birla Opus is mainly on 20-litre cans in both interior and exterior emulsions, coming at a time when the company is seeking to upend the Rs 65,000-crore domestic paints market, using a combination of manufacturing, distribution and marketing. The company has already indicated earlier that it is looking at $1 billion in revenue in the next three years. It began operations in February-March last year and is estimated to have garnered market share of about 4-5% in decorative paints in a year. Asian Paints is estimated to have market share of about 50% and Berger Paints has share of about 20.6% in decorative paints.
A 20-litre Birla Opus can in the economy segment within interior emulsions, for instance, is priced at Rs 3,903 versus Asian Paints’ Rs 4,180 and Berger Paints’ Rs 3,999 in the same category. In exterior emulsions, a 20-litre Birla Opus can in the economy segment is available for Rs 4,670 compared to Asian Paints’ Rs 5,027 and Berger Paints’ Rs 4,670 each, sources said.
In a conversation with FE at the launch of its first paint studio in Gurugram on Thursday, Birla Opus CEO Rakshit Hargave said the company would continue to gain market share and would likely reach around high single-digit share by the end of FY25. Sources in the know said the company was targeting around 7-8% market share by the end of the current fiscal, led by an aggressive dealer push which is expected to touch 50,000 by FY25-end.
Trade discounts by Birla Opus have also sharpened to about 10% to contractors and dealers, higher than what competitors provide, forcing the likes of Asian Paints and Berger to respond with similar schemes. Hargave said that the company was focusing on driving higher throughput at dealer outlets and increase the range available with them. The company has also been aggressive in installing tinting machines at dealer outlets, driving up product trials.
“Our product quality has been accepted well. It also offers better coverage to the contractors and that is one of the key reasons for the increase in market share,” Hargave said.
In a year, Birla Opus has set up five plants across the country, with an installed capacity of 1,096 million litres. A sixth plant at Kharagpur in West Bengal is slated to come up in the June quarter of FY26, which will take total installed capacity to 1,332 million litres, sources in the know said.
Hargave also said that the company is planning to open 10 more paint studios in the country, which are aimed at providing a holistic experience of the brand. This would be done over the next two months as the company ramps up its manufacturing and distribution footprint. The new paint studios will be set up in cities such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Surat. The company already runs around 300 Opus Paint Galleries under a franchise model.