Asian Paints

Asian Paints Limited
एशियन पेंट्स लिमिटेड
Public
Traded as BSE: 500820
NSE: ASIANPAINT
Industry Chemicals
Founded 1942
Headquarters Mumbai, India
Area served
 Global
Key people

Ashwin Choksi Promoter & Non Executive Chairman, Ashwin Dani Promoter &Non Executive Vice Chairman, Abhay Vakil Promoter &Non Executive Director

K.B.S. Anand (MD & CEO)[1]
Products Paints and Specialty products
Revenue INR101 billion (US$1.6 billion)(2012)[2]
Profit INR9.88 billion (US$160 million) (2012)
Number of employees
 4,937 (2012)
Website www.asianpaints.com

Asian Paints Limited is an Indian chemicals company headquartered in Mumbai, India.[3] It manufactures paints for decorative and industrial use. Asian Paints is India's largest paint company and Asia's third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs 96.32 billion. Besides Asian Paints, the group operates around the world through its subsidiaries Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings Limited, SCIB Paints and Taubmans.

History

Asian Paints was established on 1 February 1942 by Champaklal H. Choksey, Chimanlal N. Choksi, Suryakant C. Dani and Arvind R. Vakil. They name their company 'The Asian Oil & Paint Company', a name that was randomly picked from a telephone directory.

1945 – Asian Paints touches a turnover of Rs. 3,50,000

1957 – 66 – The family-owned company makes the change to a professionally managed organisation.

Major products and services

Asian Paints manufactures and markets industrial and decorative coatings. Along with that the company also provides home painting services and solutions. The company's key products and brands include the following:

Decorative paints: Interior wall paints, Exterior wall paints, Wood surface paints, Metals surface paints.[4]

Industrial coatings: Protective coatings, Floor coatings, Road markings.[5]

Ancillaries: Wall primer, Acrylic Wall Putty, Exterior Wall Putty, Wood Primer.[6]

Asian paints made a foray in automotive paints in the year 1997 with a joint venture with PPG Industries. The joint venture is called PPG Asian paints.[7] The company manufactures body coatings and plastic coatings.

Paint brands owned by the company are: Ace & Apex, Apcolite, Apex, Apex Ultima, Asian Paints, Colour Next, Premium Gloss Enamel, Royale, Royale Play, Touchwood, Tractor Emulsion, Utsav.

Forbes listing

Forbes Global magazine USA ranked Asian Paints among the 200 Best Small Companies in the World for 2002 and 2003 and presented the 'Best under a Billion' award, to the company. Asian Paints is the only paint company in the world to receive this recognition. One of the country's leading business magazine "Business Today" in Feb 2001 ranked Asian Paints as the Ninth Best Employer.It has been recognised by "Economic Times" as well. Forbes has also ranked Asian Paints among the Best under a companies in Asia in 2005, 06 and 07.

Financial deals

Asian Paints has acquired 30% stake in Dutch Boy Philippines from Berger International Limited (BIL), an indirect subsidiary of Asian Paints. Asian Paints executed a conditional stock purchase agreement relating to the sale of 427,000 shares of Dutch Boy Philippines, which ceases to be an associated company of BIL. Asian Paints, Ltd. (APL) has entered into a 50:50 new joint venture agreement with PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG), a US-based provider of paints, coatings and speciality products, to accelerate the growth of non-decorative coatings business in India.

This is the second joint venture between APL and PPG. They currently have a 50–50 joint venture named Asian PPG Industries Ltd (APPG).

APL and PPG have agreed that APL will take lead in the second venture, while PPG will take lead in APPG in order to utilise their respective strengths to best capture the growth in infrastructure development and globally driven markets in India.

APPG currently services the Indian transportation coatings market and this change will expand its scope to additionally service the industrial liquid, marine and consumer markets. The second joint venture will service the protective, industrial power, industrial containers and light industrial coating markets.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed during 2011.

It has recently acquired 51% in Sleek International Private Limited also known as Sleekworld and is looking to have a stronghold in home improvement.

Asian Paints Acquired 51% in Kadisco Chemical Industry Plc of Ethiopia

Revenue

The company recorded revenues of INR77,888.7 million (approximately $1,708.1 million) in the fiscal year ended March 2011, an increase of 14.2% over 2010. The company's operating profit was INR13,956 million (approximately $306.1 million) in fiscal 2011, an increase of 2% over 2010. Its net profit was INR8,432.4 million (approximately $184.9 million) in fiscal 2011, an increase of 0.9% over 2010.

International operations

Asian Paints operates in 18 countries across the world. It has manufacturing facilities in each of these countries and is the largest paint company in eleven of these markets. Asian Paints operates in five regions across the world viz. South Asia, Southeast Asia, South Pacific, Middle East and Caribbean region through the five corporate brands viz. Asian Paints, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. The countries that Asian Paints has presence are as follows:

1.Asian Paints in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka).

2.SCIB Paints in Egypt.

3.Berger in South East Asia (Singapore), Middle East (UAE, Bahrain and Oman), Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago).

4.Apco Coatings in South Pacific (Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu).

5.Taubmans in South Pacific (Fiji and Samoa).

The company has a dedicated Group R&D Centre in India and has been one of the pioneering companies in India for effectively harnessing Information Technology solutions to maximize efficiency in operations.

Group subsidiaries

1) Apco Coatings is a subsidiary of Asian Paints in the South Pacific islands. Asian Paints operates in Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu under the brand name of Apco Coatings.APCO COATINGS

2) Asian Paints Industrial Coatings Limited has been set up

3) In 1994, Berger units were brought under the single umbrella of the holding company 'Berger International Limited (BIL)' with headquarters in Singapore, which was also listed on the Singapore stock exchange. In November 2002, BIL became a part of the Asian Paints Group. Incidentally, Berger Paints Jamaica Limited, which is listed on the Jamaican stock exchange, is amongst the top ten companies in the country in terms of market capitalisation. In the Middle East too Berger is a well-respected brand. It is the largest paint company in Bahrain. Using its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities there, and in United Arab Emirates, it exps of the Company at its meeting held on 8 August 2013 have approved the infusion of Rs 997.8 million for 51% stake in Sleek International Private Limited (SIPL). Post the infusion, the company would hold 51% stake in SIPL, said statement from Asian Paints.[8]

Campaigns

Gattu, the mascot

Gattu, the mascot for Asian Paints was created by cartoonist R. K. Laxman in 1954. Soon Gattu, with his "shock of black hair eternally dangling over his right eye", became popular and remained so for many decades, even featured in business quizzes[9][10] After over four decades, it was eventually phased out after 2002, when company's advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) initiated a rebranding exercise.[11]

Logo change

The brand also went in a brand overhaul. The logo was changed to a contemporary upmarket, the logo/design was to convey self-expression, sophistication and Technology. Thus came the birth of a wonderful positioning strategy created by O&M. The insight was that the brand is about people and homes and homes reflect the people living in it. Hence " Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai" translated to " Every Home has a story to tell". This campaign is a perfect example of a brand laddering up and connecting to a higher level in the mind of the customer. The campaigns reinforced the brand as a premium emotional brand. Along with the campaign Asian Paints also ran parallel ads for its subbrands. Saif Ali Khan endorsed the premium brand Royale. For Apex Ultima, the campaign was highly localised and was different in different market.

References

External links