Asian Paints

Asian Paints is India's largest paint company and Asia's third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs 96.32 billion. The group has an enviable reputation in the corporate world for professionalism, fast track growth, and building shareholder equity. Asian Paints operates in 17 countries and has 24 paint manufacturing facilities in the world servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Besides Asian Paints, the group operates around the world through its subsidiaries Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings, SCIB Paints and Taubmans.

Forbes Global magazine USA ranked Asian Paints among the 200 Best Small Companies in the World for 2002 and 2003 and presented the 'Best under a Billion' award, to the company. Asian Paints is the only paint company in the world to receive this recognition. Forbes has also ranked Asian Paints among the Best under a Billion companies in Asia In 2005, 06 and 07,

The company has come a long way since its small beginnings in 1942. Four friends who were willing to take on the world's biggest, most famous paint companies operating in India at that time set it up as a partnership firm. Over the course of 25 years Asian Paints became a corporate force and India's leading paints company. Driven by its strong consumer-focus and innovative spirit, the company has been the market leader in paints since 1968. Today it is double the size of any other paint company in India. Asian Paints manufactures a wide range of paints for Decorative and Industrial use.

In Decorative paints, Asian Paints is present in all the four segments v.i.z Interior Wall Finishes, Exterior Wall Finishes, Enamels and Wood Finishes. It also introduced many innovative concepts in the Indian paint industry like Colour Worlds (Dealer Tinting Systems), Home Solutions (painting solutions Service), Kids World (painting solutions for kid's room), Colour Next (Prediction of Colour Trends through in-depth research) and Royale Play Special Effect Paints, just to name a few.

Asian Paints has always been ahead when it comes to providing consumer experience. It has set up a Signature Store in Mumbai & Delhi in India, where consumers are educated on colours and how it can change their homes.

Vertical integration has seen it diversify into products such as Phthalic Anhydride and Pentaerythritol, which are used in the paint manufacturing process. Asian Paints also operates through APPG (50:50 JV between Asian Paints and PPG Inc, USA, one of the largest automotive coatings manufacturer in the world) to service the increasing requirements of the Indian automotive coatings market. Another 50:50 JV with PPG has been proposed which will service the protective, industrial powder, industrial containers and light industrial coatings markets

International Presence:Today the Asian Paints group operates in 17 countries across the world. It has manufacturing facilities in each of these countries and is the largest paint company in eleven countries. The group operates in five regions across the world viz. South Asia, South East Asia, South Pacific, Middle East and Caribbean region through the five corporate brands viz. Asian Paints, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. The Group operates as: Asian Paints in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) SCIB Paints in Egypt Berger in South East Asia (Singapore), Middle East (UAE, Bahrain and Oman), Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago) Apco Coatings in South Pacific (Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) Taubmans in South Pacific (Fiji and Samoa)

The company has a dedicated Group R&D Centre in India and has been one of the pioneering companies in India for effectively harnessing Information Technology solutions to maximize efficiency in operations.

Vision:Asian Paints aims to become one of the top five Decorative coatings companies world-wide by leveraging its expertise in the higher growth emerging markets. Simultaneously, the company intends to build long term value in the Industrial coatings business through alliances with established global partners.

Today Asian Paints Asian Paints becomes the 10th largest decorative paint company in the world Asian Paints is more than twice the size of its nearest competitor It is one of the most admired companies in India Present in 22 countries with 27 manufacturing locations, over 2500 SKU's, Integrated SAP - ERP & i2 - SCM solution Rated Best Employer by BT-Hewitt survey, 2000 Bluest of the blue chips by Hindu Business Line; Most admired company to work for by ET-BT survey, 2000 On the recommendations of Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Asian Paints restructured itself into Growth, Decorative and International business units and adopted SCM and ERP technology Asian Paints aims to become the 5th largest decorative paint company in the world

Manufacturing Facilities
Asian Paints along with its subsidiaries has operations in 17 countries across the world and 24 paint manufacturing facilities, servicing consumers in 65 countries through Berger International, SCIB Paints-Egypt, Asian Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. Asian Paints operates in 5 regions across the world viz. South Asia, South East Asia, South Pacific, Middle East and Caribbean region through the five corporate brands viz. Asian Paints, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. In 7 markets, it operates through its subsidiary, Berger International Limited; in Egypt through SCIB Paints; in 5 markets in the South Pacific it operates through Apco Coatings and in Fiji and Samoa it also operates through Taubmans. Country No. Countries Manufacturing Plants Company Location South Asia 1 India 9 Bhandup, Ankleshwar, Patancheru, Kasna, Sriperumbudur, Rohtak, Sarigam, Baddi, Taloja 2 3 4 SriLanka Nepal Bangladesh 1 1 Asian Paints Asian Paints 1 Asian Paints

South East Asia 5 Singapore 1 Berger International

South Pacific 6 7 8 9 10 Tonga Fiji 1 Asian Paints Asian Paints & Taubmans 1 Taubmans

Samoa Islands Vanuatu 1

Asian Paints Asian Paints

Solomon Islands

Middle East 11 Oman 1 Berger International

12 13 14

Bahrain Dubai Egypt

1 1 2

Berger International Berger International SCIB Paints

Caribbean 15 16 17 Jamaica Barbados 1 1 Berger International Berger International 1 Berger International

Trinidad & Tobago

Total 24

Product range of the company includes: Automotive Paints Decorative Paints Industrial Paints Ancillaries -Range of ancillaries like primers, fillers stainers, and a lot more.

Supply Chain:Asian Paints has harnessed the powers of state-of-the-art supply chain system using cutting edge technology to integrate all its plants, regional distribution centres, outside processing centres and branches in India. All the company's paints plants in India, two chemical plants, 18 processing centres, 350 raw material and intermediate goods suppliers, 140 packing material vendors, 6 regional distribution centres, 72 depots are integrated.

The supply chain runs through a wide spectrum of functions right from materials planning to procurement to primary distribution. It has played a pivotal role in improving operational efficiencies and creating agile

procurement, production and delivery systems. It has also enhanced the flexibility of operations, lowered output time and reduced delivery costs, while improving customer-servicing levels and profitability.

The Supply Chain Management is backed by IT efforts that help the company in demand forecasting, deriving optimal plant, depot and SKU combinations, streamlining vendor relationships, reducing procurement costs and scheduling production processes for individual factories.

Tinting System:Dealers of the company use a tinting system costing nearly 2.5-3 lakh which allows them to offer more than 1000 shades from 10 basic shades. This system allows dealer to offer more range of colour and quantity demands of customers from less of inventories. Though a late entrant in the use of tinting system. Asian Paints today has today more than 2600 colour dealers, which account for more than 70% of its decorative sales plant in India. This has enabled Asian Paints to derive competitive advantage by providing service in the form of wider availability of colours while holding down the cost of providing this service.

Suppliers

Manufacturer s

Warehouse & distribution centres

Customers

Supply Chain

They are controlling inventory through their efficient supply chain and using tinting system.

Retail Initiatives:Customers - the very core of all our business activities. From the beginning, Asian Paints has fostered a customer-centric approach to business. A simple but unbeatable concept of "going where the customer is" drives all our retail strategies.

In the early 90s, for the first time in the paint industry Asian Paints offered the consumer over 150 shades. The concept was extended to the dealer shops through Colour World in the mid-90s, where Asian Paints began offering over 1000 shades. The introduction of Colour World provided a new direction for the paint industry into the age of retailing by providing the consumer - a service interface. With only a limited set of bases and colourants, manufactured and transported throughout the supply chain, Asian Paints provided a choice of innumerable shades to the customer through a technology of tinting at the last retail store.

With the introduction of Colour World, almost all wall-finishes from Asian Paints offer a wide range and choice in colours be it for interior or exterior application. It has been our endeavour to reach out to our customers not only with our products but also with value-added services and initiatives.

The Asian Paints Helpline introduced few years ago is a toll free service where consumers call and ask queries related to painting. The company has now extended this service to ASIAN PAINTS HOME SOLUTIONS, which offers painting services in addition to the paint. This service is available in 10 cities

viz - Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Coimbatore & Cochin.

The company entered into a new foray of prediction of colour trends in India. Intensive research is carried out with interior designers, architects and the fashion community to arrive at trend movements in colour each year. The study being done for the second year is termed ColourNEXT 2006, which is a collection of 15 shades predicted to be the trendiest and most happening colours in decor space in 2006.

This study has helped consumers get an insight into the latest trends in colour. This exercise has also gone a long way in helping various industries decide their colour combinations for a range of products ranging from furnishings, floorings to home accessories.

Another important area was the offer of painting solutions for children with the launch of Kids World. A foray into Kids' World marks yet another milestone wherein the company offers painting designs for Kids Rooms as well as Kids Corners. For the first time, an attempt has been made to invite the customer to get into a Do-It-Yourself mode with these designs. Royale Play is another innovative concept introduced by the company. It is a collection of innovative and ready-to-use special effect finishes for interior walls, comprising a range of special effects. And each of these effects are available in a shade palette that is fitting for that effect in interesting colour combinations. The revolutionary product gives wall paint a whole new usage. Now, along with colour, you can give your walls dimension, texture and life.

Asian Paints efforts are continuously on to engage the consumer in the painting process and fulfill all the requirements related to the world of painting.

Information Technology

Information technology (IT) plays a key role in enabling the company to grow and generate profits. Asian Paints is the only company in India to have integrated Supply Chain Management (SCM) Solution from i2 Technologies, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution from SAP. With these IT tools firmly in place and with the backing of an extensive communication platform, we are an internally enabled enterprise. The road ahead is to integrate all our stakeholders including suppliers, employees and customers and create an extended enterprise.

Asian Paints has launched a supplier portal that includes an automated digital document exchange facility that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of interaction with suppliers. An employee portal has also been set up. Customer Relations Management (CRM) tools are being used in Asian Paints Helpline and Home Solutions initiatives.

The successful deployment of ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence and Portal software from leading solution providers and integrated SCM systems has helped improve efficiency in the business as well as increase the transparency and accuracy of information across the company. In order to affect 24x7 availability of their IT infrastructure, they are setting up a disaster recovery site in South India.

To match the pace of growth of our international business, they are focusing on improving transaction systems and messaging platforms. Implementing of a portal platform for improved collaboration and sharing of information across all geographies is already underway.

Reasons company succeed in global market are:Drive to become a good leaderIt is clear in the vision of the company that they want to become a global player in the world. It enables the company to pursue its goal consistently, in spite of the odd and challenges. The management intending to go global, needs to take hard decisions on its strategy so that its long term goal are not sacrificed because of its short term orientation. Competitive advantage:Asian paints was successful in many emerging markets in the Asia Pacific by leveraging its supply chain management capabilities. Focus:A company can go global with what it is best at. If it is highly diversified company, then it can gradually out of some business that it is not best at. Company has paid focus on their goal and now they are global leader. Global Organisational Structure:Global companies dont create a major distinction between their domestic and overseas operations. Their global organistion structure is usually a matrix of businesses, geographies and functions to integrate with the global operations of the company and make them efficient, thats what asian paints is applying in their global organistion. It is facilitating the transfer of knowledge/sharing across the organistion. Focus on customer delight and long term orientation:The companies has maintained the global brand equity by winning over the trust of the customers and maintain long term orientation and providing customer delight.

Research and Development

At Asian Paints, Research & Development has played a significant role in the growth of the organization. The company has continuously invested in R&D. The entire decorative coatings portfolio for the Indian market and for overseas ventures has been developed in-house. Our technologists not only develop new products and improve upon existing formulations; but also act as a pillar of support to other functions, viz Supports Manufacturing in process cycle time reduction & improves productivity by alternate / break through processes Provides solutions to environmental issues by minimizing waste at the time of generation and also in recycling Aids Marketing in providing technical tools/USPs to demonstrate and push new products Support Materials by providing new Raw Materials as alternate to current one to give them negotiating power and also alternate vendors for supply chain flexibility New Research & Technology Centre

Asian Paints has set up a new Research & Technology centre at Turbhe on the outskirts of Mumbai (India).