The siege is over, and the time has come for the leader to sally forth into greener pastures. Even as the paints industry is emerging from the shadow of recession, Asian Paints (India) Limited (APIL), is mixing new shades to emerge with winning colors.
Says their Managing director: "With proper planning and a comprehensive approach to issues, we intend to keep pace with the growth of the industry".
APIL is actually targeting a growth rate that is higher than the 9 to 10 per cent that the industry has been averaging recently.
APIL's approach is multipronged: expansion of its product range and introduction of value added, niche products in the industrial paints area; line extensions of existing products to target lower income market segments both in rural and urban areas; expansions of production capacity and continuous modernization to keep pace with the growing demand; and diversification in to the unrelated but synergistic area of ceramics.
All these strategies are part of what the company's top management terms "harnessing our full potential", or the challenges that lie ahead. They are also aimed at retaining leadership in a recession-free industry over the next few years.
APIL is the leader in the entire industry, comprising both organized as well as unorganized players, with a market share of about 19 per cent. The company is confident of the fact that its share of industry sales is twice as much as that of its nearest competitor, Goodlass Nerolac. APIL also dwarfs the others in size, its net sales nearly twice that of Goodlass Nerolac, well over twice that of third-placed Berger Paints, and nearly four times that of fourth-placed Jenson and Nicholson.
It is only wary of the expanding unorganized sector which seems to be eating up the share of firms in the organized sector. Nevertheless, given the multiplicity of shades it is capable of, APIL reckons it can look forward to a compound growth in its market share.
But though