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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026

By Narayana Krishna and Divya Moolayattil

HYDERABAD/MUMBAI – After hitting hard on competition in the retail paints business with the launch of Birla Opus, Grasim Industries Ltd. is now turning its focus on grabbing institutional sales. The company is trying to rope in builders, contractors, painters, and all other stakeholders in the ecosystem to drive the next phase of growth, Grasim management said in a post-earnings analyst conference call.

For the December quarter, Birla Opus registered a 300-basis-point growth in its overall market share in the Indian decorative paints business. The company on Tuesday reported a net loss of INR 1.74 billion against a loss of INR 1.69 billion in a year-ago quarter. Its revenue for the quarter rose 28% year-on-year to INR 104.32 billion.

"Birla Opus remains focused on driving secondary sales from dealer counters to contractors and consumers. The company equally focused on building relationships with paint contractors, the key influencers," Grasim management said.

The company said it will continue to offer 10% incentives to certain products and categories of consumers, including painting contractors.

"Birla Opus has built an end-to-end, first-of-its-kind digital platform to engage with contractors online on a pan-India basis for product information, incentives and schemes, shaping consumer reach, open assurance registration, complaint handling, and much more," the management said.

The Birla Opus online platform is integrated with a unique track entry system to monitor consumption by customers at the pin code and dealer levels. The company is also implementing artificial intelligence-based projects to improve contractor connect and analytics.

"I am happy to share that over 7.5 lakh (750,000) contractors and builders have applied and experienced Birla Opus's superior range of products on a pan-India basis. This online platform allows us to remain always in touch digitally with the unorganised painter community and instantly transfer accrued benefits," the company said.

Expressing confidence to become the number two organised painting company in the country by 2027-28 (Apr-Mar), the company said demand for Birla Opus products is expected to be strong in the Jan-Mar quarter. With presence in 10,400 outlets across the country, the company still wants to expand its retail dealer network going forward. The company is expecting 5-6% revenue growth in FY26 and it may improve to 8-10% in FY27. For the December quarter, Birla Opus growth has outpaced industry growth, the company said without providing segment revenue and other financial details. The company said it may detail the paints business numbers next financial year onwards.

Grasim management said the company has taken a 2-6% price hike in some categories of products in January and February to test the mood of consumers. The company feels that higher discounts are hurting realisations for the company as well as the overall industry.

"We always want to maintain a particular distance from the market leaders (on pricing). And we felt the distance was slightly more than what was necessary. And we are bridging that gap. That is the objective of the price increase and there is no other objective. And we also want to test what the demand is from consumers and contractors," Grasim management said. Besides retail and institutional focus, the company is also working on improving its painting services across the country, Grasim management said. Currently, Birla Opus painting services are available in 5,000 pin codes, the company said.

Grasim management said its cellulosic fibre business has seen healthy growth in the December quarter led by improved volumes and lower input costs. Prices in this segment were also resilient for the quarter against volatility in other commodities. For the December quarter, cellulosic fibre revenue was up 9% on year at INR 42.98 billion.

Grasim expects the India-US trade deal to provide an opportunity to export some specialty chemical products such as epoxy to the US. As of now, Korean companies have some advantage in this segment's exports and the proposed trade agreement will provide scope for India to export liquid epoxy, the company said. Grasim management expects its business-to-business entity Birla Pivot to break even in FY27. Birla Pivot sells materials such as cement, steel, paints, tiles, ply, and other products used in construction.

At 1301 IST, Grasim Industries shares traded at INR 2,925.60 on the National Stock Exchange, down nearly 1% from the previous close. End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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