IPA for phase-out of lead paints

Amid the controversy over the Quality Council of India (QCI) report on amount of lead content in paints, the Indian Paint Association has approached the government to have a gradual phase out of lead from paints and to form a legal binding on this.

“The Indian Paint Association is in touch with the government to implement a law on the removal of lead from paints. The industry wants to switch over to non-lead on a phase-wise manner. Already the major players, including us, are following the international standard on this. I expect the law to be in place may be with in two years,” said Subir Bose, Managing Director, Berger Paints India.

A recent analysis of popular branded paints by QCI, the officially-sanctioned accreditation authority, in association with the Consumer Association of India (CAI), revealed unacceptable amount of lead in Berger’s paints. However, the company had said that it discontinued use of lead-based pigments in December 2009.

“We are only using it in industrial sector to resist corrossion,” he said.

“The association is demanding a gradual phase out because about 30 to 35 per cent of the industrial players are from the un-organised sector and they will need some time frame to do this,” Bose said.

According to the World Health Organisation standard, the amount of lead content allowed is about 600 parts per million.

Berger to expand retail presence
In an effort to increase its retail presence across the country, Berger Paints will extent its format retail experiment — which was launched in Tamil Nadu in 2009 — to other parts of the country.

“Berger has 50 franchisee stores in Tamil Nadu, which was on a test-run basis. Now, we will expand the venture to other parts of the country in different phases. In the first phase we will start these exclusive brand outlets in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. In next one year, our target is to have 300 similar store in different states,” Bose said.

Berger has a consolidated turnover of Rs2,000 crore and about 80 per cent — Rs1,600 crore — of it is contributed by the retail sector. “With in two years, we expect these franchisee stores to add about Rs100 crore to this retail contribution,” he said.