Asian Paints Chairman R Seshasayee, during the 78th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company, held on Wednesday, assured shareholders that he would not take any new competition for granted.
“As a market leader, we have a brand salience, which we will continue to expand and consolidate our position,” the Chairman said.
Speaking about the industrial business, Seshasayee said the company has registered “strong double-digit growth in both the industrial businesses, the strong infrastructure spends and focus on promoting manufacturing by the government”.
Asian Paints reported a growth of 2.6% in revenue from the sale of products and services at Rs 30,728 crore in FY24. The profit after tax for the year increased by 29.8% to Rs 5,322 crore.
Seshasayee said that the revenue contribution from home decor space was around 4 percent of the total decorative revenues. He said the company’s goal is to take the home decor’s revenues between 8-10% in the 3-4 years.
“We have an ambition to establish as the most integrated home decor brand in India,” the Chairman added.
Asian Paints has 60 home stores across the country at present. The company has announced a total capex plan of about Rs 8,800 crore over the next 3-4 years, covering both brownfield expansion and new greenfield plants.
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Seshasayee said they would also be investing in the VAM VAE and white cement.
On Artificial Intelligence (AI), Seshasayee said they implemented it in areas like manufacturing, distribution, and customer relationships. The company has introduced mechanics painting tools to reduce the time taken to paint.
Earlier this week, the company invested Rs 1,305 crore to double the production capacity at its Mysuru plant to 6 lakh KL per annum.
Seshasayee added, “We are seeing the competitive environment evolve with new set of entrants in the fray. This would demand a continued and deeper effort from our side to maintain our ‘preferred brand’ and market leadership status. Innovation has been a key pillar of our success, and we remain focused on bringing innovative ideas and new value propositions to life for our customers.”