Overview
The Indian paint industry is witnessing significant growth for a couple of years and customer preferences are focused on better quality paints instead of traditional whitewash. Moreover, the growth of the Indian paint industry is driven by many factors such as a significant rise of the disposable income especially of the average middle class, growth of the rural market, urbanization, reducing repainting cycle, more sales of premium-end products, and introduction of a lot of innovative products.
There are many players in the industry who are fulfilling the requirements of the paint industry. One such growing brand is Indigo Paints which is at 5th position in the largest decorative Indian paint companies in terms of revenue generation and it has a huge presence in tier 2 or tier 3 cities and rural areas. The brand has a strong portfolio of quality and distinct products. Indigo Paints has adopted a strategic approach that includes product differentiation, activities related to brand building, and developing a vast distribution network in different states, and also, decentralization of few areas of operations.
The brand ambassador of the company is Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is a well-known cricketer. Indigo Paints has a vast range of decorative paints that it manufactures like primers, distempers, cement paints, emulsions, putties, enamels, and wood coatings. There are three manufacturing units of the brand i.e. in Rajasthan, Kerela, and Tamil Nadu. The headquarter of Indigo Paints is in Pune, Maharashtra.
A Brief Background and Growth Journey of Indigo Paints
Indigo Paints started its journey in the year 2000 by Hemant Jalan who is the Managing Director of the company. He initiated a plant of cement paint in Rajasthan in Jodhpur and gradually went under expansion mode by covering most segments related to water-based paints such as Primers, Distempers, Exterior Emulsions, and Interior Emulsion. Soon, it expanded across different cities in India.
Metallic finish paints were started by Indigo Paints in the year 2009. After the massive success of Metallic paint, Indigo further launched other products such as ceiling paints, tiles paints, and driveways paints.
In FY16, Indigo Paints acquired Hi-Build Coatings which was a Kerala-based paint company and the purpose of such acquisition was to expand its market reach in Southern India and take advantage of solvent-based paints. This acquisition results in accessing manufacturing facilities in Pudukkottai and Kochi by the company.
The brand witnessed over 40% compounding growth every year and in 2018, the sale of Indigo Paints was over Rs. 450 crores.
– YoY Growth Journey
Business Model of Indigo Paints
Key Activities
Innovative Product Development
Product innovation helped Indigo Paints to stand out in the market. The brand is involved in innovative product development and different paints of the brand such as metallic finish paints, special paint for tiles, ceiling, and driveways reflect its product innovation strategy.
Marketing and Brand Building
Indigo Paints believes in significant investment in promoting its Indigo brand and also, in advertising and other promotional or marketing activities. Through the significant investment in advertising and brand-building activities, Indigo Paints is able to build brand awareness, expand across different parts of India, and enhance the dealer network.
As a part of marketing and promotion strategy, the brand has successfully branded its products in a strategic way by promoting their products under a unique “Indigo” brand, and also, they have advertised their products based on different labels as per price points like Silver Series, Platinum Series, Gold Series, and Bronze Series.
As a part of the promotional tools, they have innovative and standardized packaging designs so that uniformity can be provided and the brand can be recognized easily at dealer outlets. Different avenues are being used by Indigo Paints to promote their products as well as the brand such as traditional media outlets, celebrities as the brand ambassador, and dealers’ network. For instance, the company has engaged the famous India cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni as their brand ambassador.
Moreover, the company has also developed their brand’s mascot i.e. a zebra having stripes of different colors and this resembles the logo of Indigo Paints. It helps in increasing brand recall as it is featured regularly in the marketing materials of the company. To enhance sales of emulsion paints in target markets, the company has offered tinting machines.
Customer Segments
Indigo Paints has covered all segments of customers i.e. rural area customers, Semi-urban, and Urban area customers by establishing its depots and dealers network across different states of India.
Value Preposition
Brand Value
The brand value of Indigo Paints can be reflected in the following:
- The brand is the first to introduce Metallic paint in India that decorates walls with a unique look.
- It introduced the first Floor Coat paint in India.
- The brand has a unique Ceiling Coat paint which is meant specifically for whiter and brighter ceilings.
- To give an extraordinary glossy look, it has a Tile Coat paint for roofs which is a first-of-its-type.
Vast Product Portfolio
Indio Paints has a diversified and huge range of products as per value-added properties and their usage including bright ceiling coats, floor coat emulsion, tile coats, dirt-proof, and waterproof exterior laminate.
Differentiated Products
There are mainly two categories of differentiated products of Indigo Paints that creates value proposition among its customers i.e.:
– Category Creator Products
Indigo Paints is known for introducing specific types of emulsion paints in India’s decorative paint market like Tile Coat Emulsion paints, Floor Coat Emulsion paints, Metallic Emulsion paints, and Bright Ceiling Coat Emulsion paints. Since then, these products come under distinct types of products as differentiation of these products is based on their final-use specifications.
– Value Added Products
Indigo Paints is the one that first launched different other types of emulsion paints including Exterior and Interior Acrylic Laminate, Dirtproof & Waterproof Exterior Laminate, and Enamels like the PU Super Gloss Enamel, etc. These products come under the value-added product portfolio of the brand. The differentiation of these products from other products is also due to their specific value-added properties.
Till September 2020, seven different types of differentiated products are manufactured by Indigo Paints at their different manufacturing locations.
A Vast Network of Dealer Distribution
The brand has a strong dealer distribution network of about 11000 dealers (before March 2020) and around 4600 tinting machines.
Manufacturing Facilities that are Strategically Located
The manufacturing facilities of Indio Paints are strategically located near to its raw material sources and out of three such facilities, one is in Jodhpur and the rest two are in Kochi and Pudukkotai respectively. The close proximity of these facilities to resources of raw material helps in reducing costs related to inward costs and thus, reducing the cost of raw materials. The combined capacity utilization of these three manufacturing facilities is near around 48%.
Strong Brand Equity
Indigo Paints has strong brand equity and positioned as the 5th largest decorative paints brand in India. It has secured 3rd position in Kerela a state and around 46% sale of the brand is from Southern India.
A Strong Growth Model
The value proposition of Indigo Paints reflects in its differentiated products that cater to the specific customer requirements. It has a wide range of decorative paints, wood coatings, putties, floor emulsions, primers, and many more. So, apart from regular wall paints, Indigo Paints is able to produce more diversified paints.
Key Resources
Website
The website of Indigo Paints is www.indigopaints.com where all information related to their different products, dealers, manufacturing locations is easily available.
Staff and Management Team
The team of Indigo Paints is its key resource as it includes dynamic and young people. The management team is much professional and well qualified having relevant and significant industry experience. For instance, the promoters of the brand are the key resources in the growth of the business.
Also, the Board of Directors of the company consists of both management executives and independent members who carry relevant business expertise in sales & marketing as well as in manufacturing. The senior management team of Indigo Paints is also well qualified and carrying vast experience in a similar industry. Also, the staff of Indigo Paints has a great sense of responsibility and accountability.
Dealers
Dealers are one of the key resources of Indigo Paints for the sale of its products. Till September 2020, the brand is able to successfully distribute its products in 7 UTs (union territories) and 27 states. Apart from this, there are 14 active dealers of the brand in Bhutan. Different depots of the brand are located in India’s 20 states and 1 in UT.
Customer Relationships
Harmless Products
Indigo Paints focuses on long-term customer relationships by offering innovative products that best suits all types of decorative paints requirement of customers and also they manufacture paints by taking care of the health of customers in the process.
Easy Availability of Products
The brand has depots and dealers in different states in reach of customers. Also, it provides detailed and valuable information on social media and its website related to products.
Key Partners
Dealers
Indigo Paints has a strong network of dealers in different states and it organizes dealers meet time to time in order to recognize dealers for their partnership with the brand.
Channels
Print Media, Television, Boards
Indigo Paints uses different media channels to advertise and promote its products and brand. These channels include advertising on television, magazines, newspaper, the internet, dealer signage boards, etc.
Dealer Network
The distribution network of Indigo Paints is a strategic approach. This supports the brand in engaging with a vast network of dealers in different rural areas, Tier 3, and Tier 4 cities. In March 2020, the brand a strong dealer network of 11,230 active dealers.
There is a proper integration between the dealer network of Indigo Paints and their marketing and promotional activities.
Depots
Across their distribution network, Indigo Paints has also set-up depots at main locations for engaging with dealers and efficient service. In September 2020, there were 40 depots of the brand.
Social Media
Indigo Paints has a strong presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube and it posts information about its products on these social media channels.
Cost Structure
The main components of the cost structure of Indigo Paints include material cost, expenses on marketing and ad campaign, employee cost, and discounts offered to dealers.
Marketing and Ad Campaign
Indigo Paints invests in brand building on regular basis by increasing expenses of marketing and sales promotion activities.
Materials Cost
Another cost component of Indigo Paints is materials cost (without freight cost) and it the lowest for the brand in terms of % of revenue from operations because the manufacturing units of the company are located nearby to the source of raw materials.
Employee Cost
This includes compensation and benefits as well as the hiring cost of the staff of Indigo Paints.
Discount to Dealers
Indigo Paints offer various discounts to its dealers to boost sales.
The cost structure of Indigo Paints for FY2020 is shown in the below table and graph (Source):
The detailed expenses occurred in FY2020 as per the profit & loss statement of the company are as follows (Source):
Revenue Stream
Indigo Paints reported INR 62,479.20 lac revenue from operations in FY2020 and INR 161.40 lac from other sources. (Source)
The revenue model of the brand is as follows:
Revenue from operations generated from the above resources for FY2020 is shown in the below table and graph (Source)::
