Paint war is on! Grasim launches Opus at 5-6% discount, challenges Asian Paints' turf

Grasim Industries has launched its new paint brand, Birla Opus, at a price 5–6% below market leader, Asian Paints. 

The discount is applicable across categories such as interiors, exteriors, enamel, waterproofing, and wood primer. 

Grasim Industries launched Opus in February. The company expects the new business to turn profitable once it clocks Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenue within three years of completing full-scale operations. The company aims to become the second-biggest player in the Rs 80,000 crore Indian decorative paints market, dominated by Asian Paints. 

The group has made investments of Rs 10,000 crore for the business.

“India today is teeming with dynamism, audacity, and a penchant for innovation, which finds a reflection in our paints venture Birla Opus. Aditya Birla Group’s deep insight into the building materials ecosystem, built over the years, offers us a unique vantage point,” Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group said at the launch of the brand. 

“Birla Opus is poised to transform the paint industry with a 40 per cent addition to current capacity,” Birla said. The company is eyeing a capacity of 1,332 million litres per annum (mlpa) – bigger than the second, third, and fourth players combined. “Additionally, we will increase our capacity by 500 mlpa over the coming five years,” he said.

The company aims to clock in a revenue market share of high single digits by the end of the next financial year. It also aims to have a distribution network of 50,000 by leveraging its existing dealer network in the white cement business to push growth. Grasim Industries aims to expand its distribution to all towns with a population of 100,000 by July this year and further expand it to 6,000 towns by the end of FY25.

Global brokerage Jefferies said with nearly 60% of its planned capex of ₹10,000 crore invested in the paints business, Grasim is aggressively positioning itself in this competitive market. Grasim is eyeing to be the second-largest paint player in India, Jefferies noted. The brokerage also said that the company is set to challenge the paint oligopoly.