Top 10 Paint Companies in India
Thinking about getting your house painted but facing a problem in finalizing which paint company to choose? Worry not because we are going to look at the list of the top 10 paint companies in India. We will look into each and every paint company’s popularity, product, etc. in detail.
India is the second most populated country in the world. So, it’s pretty much clear that the requirement of each and everything is very high. It is the same with the paint as well. The paint industry is huge and there are lots of companies that provide us with paints solutions.
However, if we want to get the best paints with a huge catalogue for a selection of different shades, we should look at the players who are at the top. In India, about 75% of the market is for decorative paints. This part of the industry is immune to industrial stagnation which helps the paint companies stay profitable. The products used in the decorative paints segment are exterior wall paint, interior wall paint, primers, enamels, wood finishes, etc.
However, the remaining 25% of the market is based on industries. The industrial paint market is not of such hype. The products that are used in this industry are automotive coating, packaging coating, protective coating, powder coating, etc. So, let’s dive into the top 10 paint companies in India. Read Also: 40 Paint Colors for Living Room.
1. Asian Paints Limited
We will kick start with Asian Paints Limited on the first spot in the list of the top 10 paint companies in India. The company was started by a group of four friends in February 1942. The four founding members were Champaklal Choksey, Chimanlal Choksi, Suryakant Dani and Arvind Vakil. All of them were from the Jain families.
The company originally started from a garage in Gaiwadi, Girgaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The headquarters of Asian Paints Limited is situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. As the company started at the time of the Quit India Movement, the company quickly and easily became very popular for being an Indian company.
The popularity of the company was seen in the sales of the company as well as in 1952, the annual turnover of the company was ₹23 crore. In the year 1967, Asian Paints Limited became India’s leading paint manufacturing company. Until 1990, the majority shareholder of the company were the four founding families.
However, when the international expansion of the company was discussed, disputes began to arise regarding the ownership of rights among the families. These disputes eventually led to a break-up when the Choksey family decided to part ways by selling their shares of 13.7% in 1997.
The shares of the Choksey family were bought by the other three founding families and Unit Trust Of India. Asian Paints Limited has a total of 26 facilities for manufacturing all over the world. Among the 26 facilities, 10 are located in India itself. The company provides its services in a total of 65 counties along with its subsidies. The company is the third-largest paint manufacturing company in Asia as well.
The company has a total of 4,99,185 shareholders. Out of 4,99,185 shareholders, 81 shareholders are from Promoters & Promoter Group and they hold 52.7925% of the total share. And, the rest of the shareholders are public. The total revenue of Asian Paints Limited in 2020 was ₹20,515 crores. The net profit for the same year of the company was ₹2,728 crores.
2. Dulux Paints Limited
Dulux is another most popular paint company which has registered its name among the top 10 paint companies in India as of 2022. The company was founded in the year 1931 in the United Kingdom making it an 89 years old paint company.
The name Dulux was used by two companies in the early days. The two companies were Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and DuPont. However, the name was later used by ICI which is owned by the AkzoNobel making them the owners of the Dulux as well.
This company was the first one that introduces alkyd-based paints back then. Dulux is a multinational company spread all over the world. In the early days of the company, the main consumers of the company were the decorators and the suppliers. However, in the 1950s, they were available in the retail stores as well.
The word Dulux is a combination of a small segment of two words durable and luxury. Dulux has always been very innovative when it comes to the marketing of its product. In the year 2010, the company’s marketing campaign becomes very popular with the name ‘ Let’s colour project’.
In this advertisement, public places were coloured with vibrant bright colours. Since the arrival of the company under ICI and after being acquired by the AkzoNobel Group, the company has always been amongst the best paint manufacturing companies.
In India, Dulux has five operating facilities and over the years has been able to develop a great network all over the country to make their products available. All the five manufacturing sites have received 14001 ISO certification. Although the company is mainly known for its integrated paints and coatings, they have diversified in the chemical industry and sell about 30 different products to the pharmaceutical companies.
Dulux also introduced Air Clean Biobased paint for better living in your house. This paint is made by using natural ingredients like bamboo charcoal, tea tree oil, etc. It is very good for health as it is environment friendly. Read Also: 10 Sage Green Paint Colors.
3. Berger Paints India Limited
The third spot in the list of the top 10 paint companies in India is Berger Paints India Ltd. Berger paints offer a variety of exterior and interior paint. If you are looking for great paint with great value, then try Berger paint. They provide cost-effective paint as well as gloss vibrant coloured paint that is really the best in quality.
The company was established in Kolkata, West Bengal, India on 17 December 1923. When the company was founded in India, it was named Hadfield’s (India) Limited. After staying with its founding name till 1947 the company was bought by British Paints (India) Limited. In 1951, offices for sales were opened in Bombay and Delhi and along with them, a new manufacturing facility was also opened in Guwahati.
In 1969, the company was bought by another company known as Berger Jenson Nicholson Limited. After this, the company was renamed which is its present name and established itself as one of the leading companies in the paint industry of India. In 1994, Subir Bose become the managing director of the company and continued till 2012, when he retired, passed his baton to Abhijit Roy who is the present CEO of the company.
In the 1980s and 1990s, products like emulsions and distempers were introduced into the market. Although the company started as a small paint company in Kolkata, the city of joy. At present, it has become a multinational company. The Berger paints company can now be found operational in India, Russia, Poland, Nepal and Bangladesh.
At present, there are 16 manufacturing units in India. In India, the company has a workforce of more than 3500 people along with 25000+ distributors all over the country. Berger Paints India has 2 operational manufacturing sites in India’s neighbouring country Nepal. Total revenue of ₹ 6,265.83 crores was registered in the year 2020 with the company gaining ₹ 1798.46 crores in 2021.
4. Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd
Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited has acquired the fourth position in the list of the top 10 paint companies in India. The company was founded in 1920 as Gahagan Paints & Varnish Co. Limited at Lower Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company kept on working normally and had changed its name to Goodlass Walls Pvt. Limited. Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited is a subsidiary company of Kansai Paint of Japan.
In Sweden, the company gained huge popularity in the year 1957 and started to be known as Goodlass Nerolac Paints Pvt. Limited. In that year, they became public and were named Goodlass Nerolac Paints Limited. In 1976, the company acquired a foreign stockholding group when they became members of Tata Forbes Group.
After that, the company focused on becoming competitive and efficient as a result of which a technical collaboration was done. This technical collaboration was done in the year 1983 with the Japanese companies Kansai Paint Co. Limited and Nihon Tokushu Tokyo Co. Limited. Then, the Kansai Paint Co. Limited acquired the entire stack of the Tata Forbes Group in 1999. Eventually, this made the Kansai Paint Co. Limited the parent company of Goodlass Nerolac Paints. Ultimately in 2006, the company’s name was changed to Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited.
Kansai Nerolac Paint has 6 manufacturing units as well as 6-7 manufacturing units that are contractual. The six manufacturing units are located in 1. Jainpur, Kanpur Dehat (Uttar Pradesh), 2. Bawal (Haryana), 3. Lote, Chiplun (Maharashtra), 4. Hosur (Tamil Nadu), 5. Sayakha (Gujarat), 6. Goindwal (Punjab). In the industry of paint category, the company is the most prominent one with about 40% of the market share under them. The parent company Kansai Paint was founded by Katsujiro Iwai in Amagasaki City, Japan in 1918. The company is seen in the countries of the USA, Turkey, UK, Canada, Mexico, UAE.
Kansai Nerolac Paint provides three different types of products and huge importance is given to so the products are healthy and eco-friendly. Among the three different types of paint products, we have decorative paints which are used for interior painting, exterior painting, and metal surface painting. The automatic coating is the second type and it includes Pre-Treatment Chemicals, Electrodeposition, Topcoats, Touch Up paints, underbody paint etc. The third one is Performance Coatings which are seen in household appliances and metal fittings in factories.
If you are looking for a decorative room or house paint, then try Kansai Nerolac Paint, they provide a wide variety of paint with decorative solutions. The advertising face of the company is famous Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan and Ranveer Singh who appear in commercials. The revenue of the company was ₹ 5,305 crores in 2020. The net income registered by the company for the year 2020 is ₹515 crores. Read Also: Function of Paint.
5. Indigo Paints
The company that has listed its name among the list of the top 10 paint companies in India is Indigo Paints. Indigo Paints is a very young company when we take a look at all the companies which rank above it. This company manufactures as well as distributes their product all over India. The products manufactured by the company are decorative paints, emulsions, distemper, primers, enamels, coatings for wood, putties and cement paints.
The company was founded in 2000 by Hemant Jalan and its headquarter is located in Pune, Maharashtra. The company after its foundation first started manufacturing cement-based paint. From there the company’s presence on this list makes it clear how much Indigo Paints has been successful. The company received a huge investment of ₹ 55 crores in 2014 and ₹ 96 crores in 2016.
The company appointed former World Cup-winning Indian captain M.S Dhoni as their main ambassador in 2018. The appointment of MS Dhoni gives a clear indication of what the company aims for. Indigo Paints established distribution connections in 27 states and 7 union territories of India, this data was revealed by the company founder Hemant Jalan in December 2019.
In 2021, the company raised an investment value of ₹ 348 crores from 25 main investors. Some of the investors who invested in the company are the Government Of Singapore, ICICI Prudential Mutual Funds, Axis Mutual Funds, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, HSBC, Pacific Horizon Investment Trust, and SBI Mutual Funds.
Hemant Jalan is both the Managing Director and the Chairman of the company. Indigo Paints currently have its three manufacturing plants located in Jodhpur, Kochi and Pudukkottai. In 2021, when the company launched its IPO, its estimated valuation was 1170 crores. The revenue of the company in 2019 was ₹726 crores. This has led the company to the fifth spot in terms of revenue generation.
6. British Paints India Limited
British Paints India Limited is a company that ranks sixth in the list of the top 10 paint companies in India. The company was founded in 1919 in the United Kingdom making it over a century old. However, the company did not arrive in India until 1947. After coming to India, the company gained a lot of popularity.
This popularity was a result of India’s diverse need for industrial and architectural coatings with a lot of colour variations. The company is located in the Indian capital city of Delhi. The company has the year doing a lot of work in the industrial and retail sectors. British Paints India Limited is one of the very few companies which has the solution to almost all the problems.
May it be house surface problems like maintenance and wall care or industrial problems like Epoxy coating, like textured and enamel paints or it is waterproofing related solutions like the British waterproofing. Some of the most commonly used products of the company are Glo Advanced, Expa Cool, Master Blaster, Acri-Silk, British Emulsion, and Shingar Advanced. The motivation of the company is to provide its customers with the best coating solution out in the market.
British Paints India Limited has four manufacturing units which are located in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, and Andra Pradesh. Moreover, there are more than 50 office branches of the company in the country along with 12000 distribution partners. In 1983, the company was renamed Berger Paints. However, in 2009, the old name of the company was again introduced as an SBU of Berger Paints India Limited.
British Paints India has also been popular for providing painting solutions to organisations like institutions, corporations, hospitals etc. The company is known among the best paint manufacturers in the country. If someone goes through the company’s website, they can see how the professionals of the company have given tips about how to paint one’s house and make it beautiful. The popularity of the company is justified when we see the quality of their products and the help they provide to their customers.
7. Sirca Paints
Sirca Paints is the youngest paint company compared to other companies. The company is in the seventh spot on the list of the top 10 paint companies in India. The company was founded on 19 January 2006 by Sanjay Agarwal, Apoorva Agarwal and Gurjit Singh Bains.
The name of the company after its foundation was Sircolor Wood Coatings Private Limited. However, in 2017 after getting the approval certificate from the Registrar of Companies in Delhi the company was renamed as a Sirca Paints India Private Limited. Moreover, in 2018, the company was again renamed after getting a new approval and this time the company was named Sirca Paints India Limited which is its present name.
The company was set up by the founders to provide the Indian population with a taste of foreign presence by providing the highest quality of coating products with technical support to the customers and build a great relationship.
The company after its foundation started by providing Polyurethane Polish products which were imported from Italy, and wall paints & abrasives from Korea which were then sold in India. Sirca Paints became the first Indian company to introduce wood filler which was fully owned by the company and the sites were located in Mumbai and Chennai.
The company operates by repackaging the paints and allied materials that are imported. Then the company markets all these products and trades and distributes them through the network they build. SIRCA SPA ITALY is the company that mainly important products for Sirca Paints India. Thinner, abrasives are the only products that are bought locally from local vendors. Meanwhile, all the other products of the company are imported from outside of the country.
8. Nippon Paint Holdings Co. Ltd.
The company that holds the eighth spot in the list of the top 10 paint companies in India is Nippon Paint Holdings Co. Limited. The company was founded in March 1881 by Jujiro Motegi in Japan. It is multiple national and to its revenue in 2020, it ranks as the fourth largest paint company in the world. The main products of the company are Paints, Coatings and Fine chemicals. They produce paint for home use, architectural structure, automotive coatings, industrial coatings, and marine coatings.
The company was known as Komyosha after its foundation in 1881. However, in 1898, it was renamed Nippon Paint Manufacturing. Moreover, again in 1927, the company underwent another name change and was renamed Nippon Paint. The current name of the company came into existence after the company was reorganized as a holding company in 2014.
Nippon Paint along with Bee Chemical created a new venture in 50/50 shares in 1954. However, the Bee Chemical company became a fully owned subsidiary of the company in 2006. In India, Nippon Paint has been present for more than a decade. They have been one of the main sponsors of the IPL team Chennai Super Kings.
Some of the countries in which Nippon Paint or its subsidiaries are located are Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, India, United States, Italy, Turkey, Bangladesh etc. The products of the company are machine washable, water-resistant, and germ resistance-shield. In 2020, Nippon Paint Holdings Co. Limited had total revenue of 7.37 billion USD.
9. Shalimar Paints Limited
The company which is in the ninth spot in the list of the top 10 paint companies of India is Shalimar Paints Limited. Shalimar Paints Limited was founded in 1902 by two brothers AN Turner and AC Wright who were British. The company was founded in Howrah, West Bengal.
Moreover, in the same year, a manufacturing plant was set up in Howrah as well and it was one of its kind in entire Southeast Asia at that time. In 1928, the company was bought by Pinchin Johnson & Associates who were from the UK. Again in 1963, the company got new owners in the form of Turner Morrison & Co.
The new management changed the name of the company Shalimar Paints Limited after their arrival. Since its foundation, the company has been manufacturing decorative paints and industrial coatings. Shalimar Paints have been used in painting some of India’s most famous buildings and structures like Rashtrapati Bhawan, Howrah Bridge, All India Institute of Medical Science, Salt Lake Stadium and many more.
Although, Shalimar Paints is such an old company still they are the ones who have invented some of the most important industrial coatings. They have some of the most advanced technology which has helped them to create high-build zinc coating, polyurethane paint for fighter planes and railway coaches, and radiation-resistant coating for nuclear plants.
The first company that painted an Indian Army fighter jet was the Shalimar Paints. In 1989, the company was bought by O.P Jindal Group and S.S Jhunjhunwala Group of Hong Kong. The IPO of Shalimar Paints was introduced in 1972. Since 2015, the company’s managing director is Surender Bhatia. The total revenue of the company in 2021 was ₹333.09 crores.
10. Sheenlac Paints
The final spot in the list of the top 10 paint companies of India is taken by Sheenlac Paints. The company was founded by John Peter in 1962. The company has its headquarters located in Chennai, India. The first manufacturing unit of Sheenlac Paints was set up in Ambattur in 1971. This factor was responsible for the manufacturing of wood polish and thinners.
In the same year, Paul Peter joined the company and played a vital part in creating non-alcoholic wood polish. The Sheenlac Paints company became the first company to use HDPE bottles for the packing of their products. The company started its expansion in other parts of South India in the early to mid-1980s.
In 1982, NC Sanding sealer was introduced for the first time by the company in the Indian market. The company attached huge attraction when in 1986, a new factory was set up in Ambattur where Automotive Paints were made and the shades of colour were also created and launched regularly.
Sheenlac Paints set up the first thinner and polished manufacturing plant in India in 1991 in Thirumazhisai, near Chennai which was fully automatic. The main products of the company are Thinner, Paints and Wood Polish which are used both for decorative and industrial purposes. The company at present has four manufacturing units in India.
Sheenlac Paints is also an international company because its products are used in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Vietnam, and Nepal as well. In 2016, the company entered into the decorative section after acquiring Jenson & Nicholson. The company provides more than 2000 different shades of colours to its customers. Although the company is not very old, still its growth is enormous over the years.
There are 26 branch offices of the company all over India and a dealership network of more than 15000. This company has now a diverse range of products, among them some of the most important ones are emulsions, primers, wall and wood putty, thinners, and paint removers. In 2020, A. R. Rahman the winner of the Oscar Award was signed by the company to endorse its products.
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