Grasim Industries, the flagship company of Aditya Birla Group, has a capex outlay of Rs 3,117 crore for its existing lines of business for this financial year, chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Monday.

“For FY23, your company has earmarked Rs 3,117 crore for the existing lines of businesses, excluding the paints and B2B e-commerce business,” Birla said at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM).

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In January 2021, Grasim had announced its plans to enter the paints business with an initial investment of Rs 5,000 crore spread over three years. In May this year, the company doubled its investments, to be invested by FY25, in the wake of rising demand for decorative paints in the country.

Of the total Rs 10,000-crore capex, Rs 605 crore has been spent till FY22, Birla said, adding that the firm has also earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for its B2B e-commerce business.

The strategic foray into the paints and B2B e-commerce business were “decisive steps” to create new growth engines, he said. “Both these businesses (paints and B2B e-commerce) complement the existing lines of business within the Grasim umbrella. They cater to a large market, offer access to new customer pools, and hold the promise of creating sustained stakeholder value,” he added.

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The paints business is on track to achieve plant commissioning timelines, starting from the fourth quarter of FY24. “The business has obtained land possession at all its six sites, and the civil construction work has commenced at four sites,” Birla said.

Grasim is also “sharpening” its focus on its renewables business, Birla said. The total cumulative installed capacity of Aditya Birla Renewables was at 551 MW in FY22.

Speaking about the country, Birla said India is poised to be the fastest-growing major economy in the world. “Even as the global headwinds are being felt, India’s growth recovery is progressing well, and most estimates peg economic growth during FY23 around the 7% range. India, therefore, is poised to be the fastest-growing major economy in the world and an engine of global growth,” he said, adding that the robust economic narrative for India in the medium term augurs well for the corporate sector too.

On the sustainability front, Grasim’s VSF business has set an ambitious target to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all its operations by 2040. Its Nagda unit (in Madhya Pradesh) set a new benchmark by commissioning a zero liquid discharge plant, a global first for the man-made cellulose fibre industry.