“Today, we are the fourth-largest player in decorative paints – we would like to come into the top three and then come into the top two,” JSW Dulux chairman Parth Jindal told shareholders at the company’s 72nd annual general meeting on Friday. For industrial coatings, “nothing short of being the number one player… will be acceptable,” he added.
The company will push the Dulux brand in the decorative paint segment and leverage the JSW Group’s presence in the steel sector to expand its industrial coatings segment.
“One is the decorative side of the business where we are now going to repopularise and spend a significant amount of our effort on the brand Dulux,” said Jindal. “Vijayanagar steel plant is the largest steel plant in the world and why that is important is because 70% of industrial coatings is applied onto steel surfaces and as JSW Steel is the leading steel player, that gives us a huge advantage when we approach the customers who need industrial coatings.”
The JSW Group, which also has interests in energy, cement and infrastructure, is looking to strengthen its presence in the paints business after having officially finalized its majority stake acquisition of Akzo Nobel India and renaming it JSW Dulux. The AGM was dominated by discussions around the company’s growth strategy under the new ownership.
The AGM was Jindal’s first as chairman since the acquisition of Akzo Nobel India.
Shareholders repeatedly described Jindal, 36, as the company’s “young chairman” and expressed confidence that a younger leadership team would accelerate growth. Jindal completed his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2016.
Shareholders’ questions
Shareholders sought clarity on how JSW Dulux plans to compete with Asian Paints and Birla Opus, invest in research and development, deploy artificial intelligence and utilize its cash reserves for expansion.
The future of the company’s registered office in Kolkata emerged as a recurring theme, with shareholders requesting that it remain in the city, citing its long association with the company and the importance of eastern India to its business. JSW Dulux shifted its corporate office to Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex from Gurugram effective 1 April this year.
“So, Kolkata and Bengal is one of the high market share states and will continue to be one of the areas to invest,” Rajiv Rajgopal, joint managing director and CEO of JSW Dulux, said at the AGM.
Responding to queries, Rajgopal said JSW Dulux would invest in digital platforms, AI-enabled manufacturing and customer service while leveraging the wider JSW Group’s industrial relationships. He added that the company would continue to receive Akzo Nobel’s global technology, patents and research under a licensing agreement.
Rajgopal said the chairman recently visited one of the paint company’s sites and gave them an idea of how to leverage JSW Energy’s network to get sustainable electricity supply and reduce power consumption and costs. JSW Energy has thermal, hydro, wind and solar power plants with a total operational capacity of 13,454 MW.
Jindal said FY26 had been a transition year following the acquisition but added that the integration of Akzo Nobel’s technology with JSW’s business network would position the company for its next phase of growth.
JSW Paints acquired a majority stake in Akzo Nobel India from its Dutch parent Akzo Nobel N.V. and its affiliate in a deal valued at almost ₹9,000 crore about a year ago. The acquisition brought established brands like Dulux and Sikkens under the JSW umbrella.
