 Nippon Paint to set up Chennai facility
Nippon Paint, the 125-year-old international paint major headquartered in Japan, announced in Chennai its India entry, with the plan to set up a manufacturing facility in the city.
Nippon Paint is making its India debut from Chennai and would expand geographically into other cities. South India is buzzing with economic activity and paint sales are growing at a faster pace, and that is the reason why Chennai has become a preferred destination for the company, said W M Yip, managing director, Nippon Paint (India) Private Limited, in Chennai. The products will be rolled out across the country from early 2008.
The Chennai plant is expected to be set up at a cost of nearly Rs 70 crore, while another Rs 10 crore would be spent on the marketing structure, Yip said. A second plant would be set up at Gurgaon, where the company had some land, to cater essentially to the market in north India. This facility would also cost around Rs 80 crore, he added.
Announcing Nippon Paint's entry, Satoshi Yamamoto, GM, International, Nippon Paint, Japan, said, "We are happy to be here in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets today. We are sure consumers in India will find the Nippon Paint experience exclusive and world class."
In the initial phase, Nippon Paint plans to import the paints though it is in the process of setting up manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon and Chennai. The company is introducing some of its internationally renowned interior and exterior emulsions in India, like 3 in 1 Medifresh and Weatherbond from its huge global portfolio.
Nippon's 3 in 1 Medifresh interior emulsion has an antibacterial formula which protects interior walls against bacteria. It is water resistant and is even able to cover hairline cracks successfully.
Weatherbond is high performance, superior exterior acrylic emulsion paint and is specially formulated to take on extreme weather conditions. It has many functional properties like water resistance, dirt pick up resistance, algal resistance and alkali resistance.
Nippon Paint is also planning to introduce aerosol spray paints which will expose Indians to the globally popular and successful Do-It-Yourself concept.
Yip said, "Beginning with the south, we will soon expand our operations across India. Though we are initially launching only a few products in the decoratives range, we will soon introduce more of our other products in the country. Initially, we will be investing over 80 crore in India within the next two years."
Retail Strategy
Nippon Paint will be setting up a chain of exclusive retail outlets across the country through its channel partners. These exclusive outlets will provide professional help and consultancy services apart from providing a retail experience that will be exciting, customer-friendly and product-centric.
According to Ramakanth Akula, vice-president (Decoratives) - Nippon Paint (India) Private Ltd, "Our pre-launch research showed that paint buying is not a consumer-friendly experience. Brand differentiation is also low among consumers. Based on this we have arrived at two thrust areas - 1. to set up an exclusive chain of outlets that would elevate the paint shopping experience, through a host of value-added services; 2. to build Nippon Paint as a company that offers premium and functionally superior products."
Ramakanth said efforts would be made to evolve special anti-corrosive paints and primers to suit coastal areas which are affected by the sea breeze (corrosive due to the salt content).
Chennai has been preferred as a destination because of the high demand for the emulsion category in south India. Discussions were on with the Tamil Nadu government regarding getting some land for the Chennai plant, he added.
R Rangaraj
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