Aditya Birla Group expands into paints business with Birla Opus

Aditya Birla Group is launching a new decorative paints brand, “Birla Opus,” with an upfront investment of ₹10,000 crore ($1.2 billion) to capitalize on a growing Indian decorative paints market, the company announced.

Birla Opus is being set up by the group flagship Grasim Industries Ltd and targets $1.2 billion gross revenue in three years of full-scale operations.

Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla called the launch a “defining moment” for the conglomerate, and said that it “embodies the spirit of aspirational India.”

“India today is teeming with dynamism, audacity, and a penchant for disruption. This India finds a reflection in our paints venture, Birla Opus. The Aditya Birla Group’s deep insight into the building materials ecosystem, honed over the years, offers us a unique vantage point. Birla Opus, therefore, is poised to transform the paint industry with a 40% addition to current capacity,” Birla said.

No paint company globally has ever launched in one shot—factories, operations, products, and services, at the scale that we are about to undertake, he added. 

Three Birla Opus plants in Panipat (Haryana), Ludhiana (Punjab), and Cheyyar (Tamil Nadu) were launched together on Thursday, while Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Mahad (Maharashtra), and Kharagpur (West Bengal) units will commence production in the next fiscal. 

These six plants will together produce up to 1,332 MLPA (million liters per annum)—a 40% addition to the current industry capacity.

“Birla Opus should be seen as a scale start-up incubated by the Aditya Birla Group. It uniquely combines the agility, energy, and frugality of a start-up with the muscle, reliability, and brand strength of a storied and dynamic conglomerate,” he further said. 

Birla “invited the entire spectrum of 100,000+ paint dealers pan India to participate in this industry revolution and transform consumer experience”.

Birla Opus products will be available in Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu from mid-March 2024 and across all 100,000 population towns in India by July, the company said. 

The company aims to expeditiously expand its distribution to over 6,000 towns by the end of the coming fiscal year. 

“This will be the fastest & widest pan-India launch by any paint brand,” the Mumbai-headquartered company said. 

“Birla Opus is all set to redefine standards on creativity, scale, transparency, technology, and sustainability. We are confident that the benefits of the competitive advantage built on the interplay of futuristic technology and pioneering chemistry will be passed on to the consumers through lower costs and consistency of superior quality. Birla Opus promises to simplify the consumer journey making the experience of painting enjoyable and contemporary,” Aditya Birla Group director Himanshu Kapania said. 

The company said Birla Opus will offer water-based paints, enamel paints, wood finishes, waterproofing, and wallpapers across consumer segments—economy, premium, luxury, designer finishes, and institutional clients. 

The brand will also offer direct painting services, PaintCraft, as a one-stop shop for a comprehensive range of products and services.

The newly launched company claimed that it has already enrolled over 300,000 painting contractors and is starting the largest-ever sampling program.

Rakshit Hargave, CEO, Birla Opus, said, “On the back of strong in-house R&D, and extensive field validations, Birla Opus is committing to a higher product warranty than the leading players across water-based products. Birla Opus is also setting a benchmark by offering a first-time warranty on enamels and wood finish products.”

“As a customer-centric organization, Birla Opus is poised to introduce a unique and pathbreaking customer assurance program shortly. As part of the inaugural offer, consumers will get an additional 10% volume on water-based products and contractors will get loyalty benefits across most of our products,” he said. 

One of the oldest industrial groups in India, Aditya Birla is a US$65 billion global conglomerate with over 187,000 employees across continents.