All offerings to be painted with one ‘Berger’ mother brand

Berger Paints India is planning to have one mother brand across all its offerings.

Called “Berger”, this brand will encompass all sub-brands including those which did not belong to the erstwhile Sherwin Williams India stable. Currently, the Kolkata-based paint maker has different brand names like Berger and BJN Paints India, while some of its offerings carry logos of Sherwin Williams.

According to Abhijit Roy, Managing Director and CEO, Berger Paints India, the “Berger” brand has a much stronger value proposition than either Sherwin Williams or BJN Paints. Therefore, all sub-brands, except a few which belong to Sherwin Williams, will be brought under the Berger umbrella. In case of sub-brands belonging to Sherwin Williams, these will be re-christened under some other name. The decorative or home paints business of the US-based Sherwin Williams’ India unit was acquired by Berger through Brushwork Paints (now rechristened BJN Paints India) in March 2013. Berger, however, continues to compete with Sherwin Williams in the industrial paints segment.

This amalgamation and merger will help bring about cost savings, operational efficiencies, economies of scale, and greater profit, he explained. “All offerings will come under the mother brand of Berger. Sherwin Williams’ brands will cease to exist from our portfolio. Berger is a far more reputed brand here and so it makes far more sense to go with it,” Roy told BusinessLine during an interview.

The board of directors of Berger has already approved the amalgamation of BJN Paints India (previously known as Brushwork Paints). BJN Paints is a step-down subsidiary of Berger. Step-down means, subsidiary of a subsidiary. In this case, BJN is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BeePee Coatings, which in turn is a subsidiary of Berger.

“We will be looking at shareholders’ approval once clearance from the National Company Law Tribunal is received,” the MD & CEO said. "Berger Paints India has filed with the BSE the scheme of amalgamation of BJN Paints with Berger with effect from April 1, 2017."

Sources point out that Berger, incidentally, is already in talks for an acquisition and something may materialise by the first half of this fiscal. Roy, however, did not reveal details.

“We always look at acquisitions. If it is an attractive one and meets our requirements we will go for it,” he pointed out.

“Requirements” typically include interesting products, or distribution reach that can be utilised or leveraged.

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