Paint firms strengthen moats as competition heats up

A bruising market-share battle is escalating in India's ₹70,000-crore paints sector, forcing companies to look beyond aggressive discounting and instead strengthen their foothold in key geographical areas while sharpening their product portfolios.

- Dipali Banka

The companies are focusing on strengthening foothold in key geographical areas and sharpening product portfolios...

India's third-largest paint-maker, Kansai Nerolac, is strengthening its presence in markets where it already commands scale, while smaller rival Nippon Paint is leveraging dominance in South India.

Kansai's managing director, Pravin Chaudhari, in a post-earnings interaction with analysts in October, said that they face 'heavy competition' in the decorative paints segment.

"We will be making calculated investments in our strong markets and also improving our product mix and not getting into products that are actually low or almost zero profits. So that's a clear strategy," Chaudhari said.

Nippon has adopted a similar approach, and is also exploring expansion beyond decorative paints into sealants, powder coatings and other adjacencies.