Berger Paints earmarks Rs 130 cr for expansion

Mumbai: Berger Paints plans to invest Rs 120-130 crore in FY12 to fuel its expansion plans, which include capacity-building and launching new products, a senior company official said.

“We have embarked on an aggressive plan to expand our capacity and also spread our business in other parts of the country. We plan to invest Rs 120-130 crore this fiscal for this. We will continue to make such investments over the next two-three years,” company director and chief financial officer Srijit Dasgupta said during a conference call here over the weekend.

Dasgupta further said the company, which enjoys 19 percent of the over Rs 21,000-crore of the paints market, will launch three-four products in the premium segment. He, however, refused to divulge about the categories or the time frame.

Within the organised market, Berger is the third-largest player with 19 percent market share after Asian Paints (30 percent) and Kansai Nerolac (20 percent), while ICI 12 percent.

The company had posted a 16.41 percent spike in net profit to Rs 37.2 crore for the June quarter compared to Rs 31.9 crore in same quarter last year. During the quarter, its net sales jumped 30.3 percent to Rs 693.1 crore.

“Though margins continue to be under pressure due to a lull in our industrial applications business, the rise in prices in the decorative business has aided topline growth. We had increased prices thrice since May,” Dasgupta said.

PTI