The Aditya Birla Group is entering the paints business through a new venture announced by flagship company Grasim Industries Ltd. The company plans to introduce the latest range of paint products in line with global mega-trends.

Grasim has a long and successful history of incubating large businesses for the Group. It started as a textiles manufacturer back in 1947. Since then, it has diversified into a host of B2B and B2C businesses. Today it holds a global leadership position in mulstiple categories & its foray into decorative paints, a high growth and high ROCE business will provide greater scale and growth to its existing business portfolio. The strategy for entry backed by a strong balance sheet & capex commitment of Rs.10,000 crores 

The decorative paints sector is a large Rs.70,000 crore market, with unorganised players holding one-fourth of the market share. The sector is on an upward trajectory with a CAGR of 11-12%. The demographics-led demand, urbanisation, shortening of repainting cycles and the government’s infrastructure push is expected to provide an impetus to this sector. Grasim has already identified a team which includes industry experts from within and outside the Group. This team has been working on research, product development, technology & Route to Market for some time now. Insights from consumer research, trade partner research as well as influencer research, and a study of global industry trends and practices have helped Grasim identify gaps in the marketplace. It also plans to leverage the decades-old strong distribution network established by Birla White, a market leader in white cement and putty distribution, which enjoys the second largest distribution network in the paints industry after the market leader.

Key Result Areas: 

1. Vendor Operations Management

• Vendor Scouting, registration, securing quotes;
• Product / service management - Defining specification, approving samples, creating allocation, managing GRN, storage & dispatch
• Vendor Negotiation & contractual alignment - Developing the Costing model, Payment terms, re-course & other T&Cs

1. Managing commercial compliance

• Developing & defining budgets
• Ensuring compliance to commercial systems (WBS, PO, invoice, GST recon etc.)

1. Budget management & analysis 

• MIS reporting & actions thereof