Auto Refinish Business History
Asian PPG refinish business from 1997 has travelled a long way from a humble Rs. 19 Crores business to being the market leader today with revenues in excess of Rs. 200 Crores. The business started with three brands Aspa, Apca and Deltron. Aspa and Apca came from Asian Paints and Deltron GRS came from PPG. Asian PPG refinish division took almost three years to carve itself out of its parent companies. For the first three years, the Aspa and Apca were in fact Asian Paints brands. The Asian PPG team was then composed out of Asian Paints employees who were deputed to Asian PPG. We had a very small team of managers - one National Sales Manager, two Product Executives and only two Area Managers – one based out of Mumbai and other based out of Delhi. The following year, we added another Area Executive in Chennai. The sales team at that time was composed of Auto TSI and Technical TSI. Auto TSI were responsible for Aspa and Apca brands and Technical TSI were responsible for Deltron sales.
In the year 1999-2000, AsainPPG had grown to Rs. 24 Crores in revenues, and had carved itself out of the parent companies when Aspa and Apca became Asian PPG brands. The same year, the employees who were deputed to Asian PPG were given an option to resign Asian Paints and join Asian PPG. By 2000-2001, AsainPPG’s employee strength had grown to 70.
It will not be incorrect to say that Asian PPG has been the pioneer in terms of developing training services for its customers. The first training centre was developed in Mumbai in the year 1999. Today, we have established four state-of-the-art training centres at Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi.
Inspired by the globally successful PPG Platinum, AsainPPG launched its Platinum Club in the year 2000-2001. The first Platinum Evening was held in Malaysia. This is a very unique programme that seeks to recognise and acknowledge strong partnerships and sterling performances. The programme has been running successfully now for the last nine years and with our channel partners, we have travelled to Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, China, France, Switzerland, London, Germany and Austria.
Autobasic was the first Asian PPG brand that was launched in the year 2001-2002. This brand was launched to target the value for money market of the undercoat NC products. It was followed by the launch of Bilux in 2002-2003 in the Eco PU range. Today, this brand is the market leader in its segment. In the year 2007-2008, our market share jumped from 21% the previous year to 35%. This major shift was due to acquisition of ICI’s brand 2K Nexa Autocolor. It was not only a quantum jump in terms of market share that made us the market leaders but also in terms of people strength as more than 60 employees joined Asian PPG. The channel also grew tremendously. We added more than 380 dealers to our network and more than 400 body shops. With the continuous efforts of the entire team the channel was convinced that nothing will change because of acquisition that might have an adverse effect on the dealers. In these last two years, we have not only succeeded in retaining the market leader position but have also gained the market share by 2%.
Every year, for three days the entire refinish team comes together at the Annual Conference to discuss the last year’s performance and strategy for the future. It acts as an open forum for discussion. The sales team award event is also held during the conference. At the end of the day, it is the entire team that works towards creating a success story. We are the market leaders and plan to consolidate our position in the coming years.
Our Channel:
We have the widest reach and the strongest channel. Over 1500 dealers are supported from 31 depots spread across India. We have close to 1350 racks and we add over 200 racks every year. Our premium products are imported from UK, Australia and Malaysia.
Similarly, other products are manufactured in India and are routed similarly through our dealers to the end customers.
Refinish Supply Chain:
Refinish Supply Chain vision is to be the ultimate supply-chain facilitator in an ever-changing market by focusing on what's truly important - providing products and services to customers how, when and where they want them.
Refinish SCM strategic plan is to ensure a steady flow of material through value-added manufacturing processes while maintaining inventory at its lowest value point and highest versatility. SCM function will be end-to-end supply-chain facilitator to promote speed, agility, efficiency and cost-containment throughout the entire supply chain.
Road Ahead:
Auto refinish, traditionally, has been an industry driven by sales. As the market leaders, we would like to set a trend of bringing marketing elements to this. Initiatives like new products, introduction of adjacencies, differentiation, etc. will be driven by marketing. We have been market leaders for three years now. We would not only like to retain our market position but gradually increase our market shares as well, taking advantage of our strong network, sales and training teams.