“We want to take the pain out of paints” - Amit Syngle MD Asian Paints

“We want to take the pain out of paints”, says Amit Syngle MD Asian Paints who says they are focussing on paint more as a service, than a product. The company, which was formed in 1942, has come a long way to become India’s leading and Asia’s third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs. 217 billion.

Namrata Kohli meets Amit Syngle on the sidelines of India Design ID 2022 held at  New Delhi’s NSIC Grounds in Okhla

You just unveiled the ColourNext 2022 forecast of trends in colours, materials, textures and finishes from Asian Paints. What is the mood of the season?

While 2021 was a year of major changes and lessons, 2022 is the year for taking everything in our stride and marching on. A time to shake off stigma and stereotypes and keep growing, the colour of the year is 'Transcendent Pink' which is all about liberating oneself to live life, riding every tide.

ColourNext 2022 is all about embracing the new and translating that into décor spaces. Once you free yourself from traditional mindsets and open up to a new outlook and way of life, it's incredibly life-changing. The four new trends We/Us, Hope You’re Well, Artify, and Solo Commerce hint towards unlocking a different reality through acceptance, empathy, confidence, community, support et al. Transcendent Pink is surely going to inspire us all to rise from the ashes of the normal we once knew, to explore a whole new kaleidoscope of life.

What is the demand for paints post pandemic?

Home is where the emotional energy resides. I think the importance of home is something that people have discovered in the last two years in a strong manner. People are spending a lot more thought on how to do up their home now than ever before. It's opening up people’s minds because art by its very nature is soothing and calming in terms of what it gives you- it literally builds a little bit of an emotional resilience. People are finding interest in the metaphysical world and that is leading to a little bit of an art explosion.

When we look at the paints segment there are two major issues the consumer faces – one is of quality and the other is time. How do you address these?

Quality is supreme for us at all price points and there is no dilution on that aspect. Even a value-for-money customer is expecting a certain quality from a certain brand. For quality, we focus on three things- R&D, sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing excellence. Today, all our plants are automated and what automation does is that it gives impeccable quality batch after batch. A lot of testing is done at the intermediate stage and the final stage and everything is customer centric.

We offer a quick makeover service where we can do the homes within two days, homes within 4 days, 7 days depending upon what the choice of home décor on the walls and it’s a service which comes with warranty and security. We are doing homes where the customer is handing over the key on a weekend and they can come back and find the home painted fully. Our entire thing is that in the whole painting process, sometimes the 't' becomes silent and therefore it's more of a pain than paint. We are trying to amplify the servicing angle and reach out to large people with all these services.  

You say paint is more than a product, a service. What kind of services do you provide at Asian Paints?

One of the important things is placing the service piece in the market and today we run something called as a safe painting service across 250 cities across the country where we are able to give the customer design consultancy in addition to execution. We have a model depending upon the requirement of the customer with supervision and without supervision and I think today this is the world’s largest service. There is no other company that reaches out to so many homes and towns.

Which is your luxury range in paints which you are proud of, which delivers the best sheen and finish on the walls?

It is a range which we call the Royale range in which we have 4-5 brands – the topmost brand is called Royale Glitz which we have just introduced which is a high sheen no crack range which comes with Teflon. The prices vary between Rs 17-18 per sq ft to Rs 26 per sq ft depending upon the undercoats you are using and the state of the substrate which is there, along with labour.

You are going beyond the paints business to allied verticals. Please tell us about that.

We are looking beyond the four walls and between the four walls as we move forward. We are moving from the share of surface to the share of space and that is the most exciting part of our journey. We are looking at rugs and wallpapers, furniture and lighting and everything that complements our coatings business covering all points in the lifespan of the customer in the design and décor area.

All our ranges in home décor are coming with a clear difference. If you look at the furnishing range, we have collections starting with Adore (starting at Rs 500 a metre) to Royale and then finally Nilaya by Sabyasachi (which can go up to Rs 6,000 per metre) while the premium range is between Rs 1,500-2,000 per metre. We don’t deal with cheap Chinese or Korean varieties. We import our raw materials from Europe or US and they are of a certain quality and design standard.