“Innovativeness” is the key – Nippon Paints

It was an inspiring lecture delivered by Mr. Mahesh Anand from Nippon Paints on April 3rd and 4th 2010 at Chennai Business School. Mr. Mahesh is the zonal head of Southern India for Nippon Paints- and he comes with a 20 yrs work experience. He talked with abundant information about the paint industry in India and how Nippon paints carved its way in the Indian paint industry.

Decorative paints are made available with different colors and patterns and it covers around 70% of the Indian market. The paint industry in India is mostly dominated by the Asian Paints company, a veteran paint giant with market share of 56% and having more than 25000 dealers across the country.

Nippon paints – the 129 year old international paint major, headquartered in Japan penetrated into the Indian market showcasing its innovative property of elasticity, odorless and environment friendly paints developed from its numerous research and development centers established using Japanese technology.

The company has maintained a robust supply chain management. Having learnt that shipping duty is more than the cost of the product, it has setup two distinctive manufacturing units in India, one at Chennai and the other at Gurgaon. It has capacious warehouses that enable to store bulk amount of products as per the specific requirements of the clients. This made the cost effective supply of paint products across the country through only specific and experienced paint dealers. It targeted Asian paint dealers who had relevant experience and exposure with the Indian market scenario.

Nippon is the first company to setup an exclusive specialty retail outlet for paints- this helped various consumers like building contractors, builders, painters and even common people by exhibiting its various products with distinctive features and quality. It has helped the consumers to feel the product and realize Nippon’s USP. These exclusive stores will provide professional help and consultancy service apart from providing a retail experience that will be exciting, customer friendly and product centric.

Contributed by Leela Vijay Kumar, Retail Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)