Berger Paints AP facility begins operations

The company would hike plant capacity four-fold to 320,000 tonne in five years. It has invested Rs 250 crore so far

Berger Paints India Ltd, which has a 20 per cent market share in the Rs 20,000-crore organised paint market in India, on Friday announced its manufacturing plant at Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh had begun operations.  

The Phase-I integrated plant with a capacity of 80,000-tonne saw an investment of Rs 250 crore.

The Kolkata-headquartered company plans to raise the plant’s capacity four-fold to 320,000 tonne in the next five years, with a total investment of Rs 550 crore. “We have all the necessary infrastructure in place to expand the existing facility,” said Abhijit Roy, managing director and CEO of Berger Paints India.

In two years from now, it plans to scale up production here to 160,000 tonne. The plant’s full-scale expansion would depend upon the market demand for its products, he added.

The plant at Hindupur in Anantapur district is the company’s largest zero-liquid discharge water-based paint facility, fully automated and comes with robotics. Coupled with this, Berger has plans to set up a 100,000 kilolitre emulsion unit here. This would serve the raw material needs of the facility.

It is also looking towards setting up an automotive coatings unit at Gollapuram industrial area, which is 3-4 km from the Hindupur facility. Through its JV partner Nippon Bee of Japan, Berger would invest Rs 35-45 crore in the auto coatings unit in the next 4-5 months.

To hike prices 2.2% from February 1

After two price hikes this fiscal, Berger today said it would raise its product prices 2.2 per cent with effect from February 1. On average this fiscal, it raised product prices by around 5 per cent. “The hike is due to a rise in raw material costs,” said Roy.

In the Apr-Sept period this financial year, Berger recorded a revenue growth of 14 per cent as against an industry growth of Rs 12 per cent, Roy said.

Berger also has operations in Russia, Poland, Bangladesh and Nepal.