Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla on Thursday announced the launch of products and services under its new decorative paints brand, “Birla Opus”, aiming for Rs 10,000 Cr gross revenue within three years of full-scale operations. This marks the Aditya Birla Group’s entry into the rapidly expanding Rs 80,000 Cr Indian decorative paints market, with an unprecedented level of upfront investment of Rs 10,000 Cr, according to a media statement here. Birla Opus business is being set up by the group flagship company, Grasim Industries Ltd. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said, “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 per cent addition to current capacity. 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, “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.”
Birla Opus products will be available in Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu from mid-March 2024 and across all 1 lakh population towns in India by July 2024. The company aims to expeditiously expand its distribution to over 6,000 towns by the fiscal year end. This will be the fastest & widest pan-India launch by any paint brand. The Aditya Birla Group Chairman also unveiled the brand logo of ‘Birla Opus’. The name ‘Birla Opus’ embodies the trust that underpins the Aditya Birla brand, with ‘Opus’ signifying beauty personified. The word ‘Opus’ is derived from the Latin phrase “magnum opus”, which represents a great work of art. “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,” stated Himanshu Kapania, Director, Aditya Birla Group. Birla Opus will offer the widest range in the industry, with 145+ products and 1200+ SKUs across water-based paints, enamel paints, wood finishes, waterproofing and wallpapers. The products offered will be across consumer segments – economy, premium, luxury, designer finishes and institutional clients. In addition, Birla Opus will present the largest range of 2,300+ tintable colour choices including 216 iconic Indian colours.
The brand is also set to delight consumers through its direct painting services, PaintCraft. This one-stop-shop for a comprehensive range of products and services, at launch, is an industry-first. 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 most of water-based products. Birla Opus is also setting a benchmark by offering first-time warranty on enamels and wood finish products. As a customer-centric organisation, 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.” Birla Opus has already enrolled over 300,000 painting contractors and is starting the largest-ever sampling program. To service the length & breadth of the country, Birla Opus is building the “second largest network” of dealers within the first year, with an aim to create win-win partnerships with dealers. Birla Opus is installing for free, new age compact tinting machines with 40% reduced footprint enabling easier colour adoption. Birla Opus is committed to meet industry standard of 4-hour delivery of its 1200 + SKUs to dealers in Depot towns through the largest network of 150+ depots integrated with the latest warehousing systems. At the launch event, Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla “invited the entire spectrum of 100,000+ paint dealers pan India to participate in this industry revolution and transform consumer experience”.
Birla Opus has six strategically located, fully automated, integrated, and global scale manufacturing plants with a total commercial capacity of 1,332 MLPA (million litres per annum) – a quantum leap of 40% addition to the current industry capacity. Panipat (Haryana), Ludhiana (Punjab) and Cheyyar (Tamil Nadu) Birla Opus plants were dedicated to the nation today. Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Mahad (Maharashtra) and Kharagpur (West Bengal) units will commence production over the course of FY25. All 6 manufacturing plants are fully sustainable with zero liquid discharge and equipped with 4th generation manufacturing technology to manage supply chain processes at lightning speed, zero defects and end-to-end traceability. The Aditya Birla Group’s entry into the paints market signals its confidence in the sector’s future bolstered by the government’s push for infrastructure development and housing for all. India’s economy is expected to reach 10 trillion USD by 2034, with the paints sector set to surpass the Rs 3,00,000 crore mark by that time. Birla Opus is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this dynamic landscape, the statement said.