Berger Paints India Ltd expects to maintain a “double-digit growth” for the quarter ending September 30, riding on improved sales.
The Kolkata-headquartered company posted nearly 11 per cent growth in net profit in the April-June 2013 quarter.
“We expect a double-digit growth in Q2. The consumption will rise, since there was a good monsoon and agricultural production is expected to be better,” Abhijit Roy, Managing Director and CEO, Berger Paints, told reporters here on Thursday. He was speaking on the sidelines of the 50th Annual General Meeting of the Indian Paint Association (IPA). According to him, the company is likely to see a rise in demand this festival season.
The company’s shares closed 2.19 per cent higher at Rs 223.55 on the BSE on Thursday.
Constraints
Earlier, addressing the AGM, Roy pitched for reduction in duty on titanium dioxide from the existing 10 per cent. Titanium dioxide is used as a raw material for paint manufacturing.
The Indian paint industry is pegged at Rs 28,000 crore and growing at nearly 12 per cent.
Though the raw material for making titanium dioxide is available in India and being exported, the country lacks facilities to produce it domestically, Roy pointed out.
Ramakanth V. Akula, President, IPA and President-Decoratives, Nippon Paint (India) Pvt Ltd, said that the Government should “suitably reduce” the duty on titanium dioxide in line with other chemical, since it constitutes more than 80 per cent of the imported chemicals used for paint manufacturing.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.