Berger Paints India Limited or BERGEPAINT

It was incorporated in 1923 and became the third largest paint manufacturer and the second largest manufacturer in decorative paints. Its headquarters are located in Kolkata, and it has a distribution network of about 75 stock points with 12,000 paint retailers. This particular Company has come a long way to be at one end of time and also a part of the worldwide BERGER group in 1983 and therefore acquiring its present name Berger Paints India Limited to be subsequently gone via further ups & downs as well as the ownership changes to gain its current status where the majority of stake is with the Dhingra brothers who are Delhi based.

History of the Company:

Soon, the person who took over as its first managing director was named as Mr. Alexender Vernon Niblet, who was an Englishman, and later on, followed by Mr. Alfred Godwin in the year 1962. Then, in 1965, the share capital of the British Paints (Holdings) Limited was being acquired by the Celanese Corporation, of the USA and the controlling interest of British Paints (India) Ltd was acquired by the CELEURO NV, a Celanese subsidiary, and Holland. In 1969, the Celanese Corporation also sold its Indian interests to Berger, and Jenson & Nicholson, the U.K. Soon after that the Company British Paints (India) Ltd. became a member of the worldwide BERGER group by carrying out its operations overseas and in numerous geographic locations. It also marked the beginning of Lewis Berger's legacy in India which would be taken forward to its enviable heights. And from 1973, the Company also entered into one of its active phases of business with the introduction of new generation products in the industrial, and marine and decorative sections under the capable leadership of its first Indian Managing Director Mr. Dongargaokar Madhukar. In 1976, another turning point came in the history of the Company when the foreign holding in the Company was being diluted below the 40% by the sale of a specific portion of the shares to the U.B. Group which was controlled by Mr. Vittal Mallya. Soon, the reins of the Company were taken over by Mr. Biji K Kurien with the position of Chief Executive & Managing Director in 1980. Finally, in 1983, the British Paints (India) Limited also changed its name to Berger Paints India Limited. The complete era of the 80s & 90s saw the lunch of many new products from the Company's stable, such as premium emulsions and high-quality acrylic distempers. Also, the COLOUR BANK tinting system was launched with the purpose to let the consumer select from a given range of over 5000 shades. The fortunes of the Company turned around in the year 1991 with the U.B. Group's stake in the Company which was brought over by the Delhi based Dhingra brothers named as Mr. G.S.Dhingra & Mr. K.S.Dhingra along with their following associates of the U.K. Paints Group. Presently Dhingra' controls a majority stake of almost 73% in the Berger Paints India Limited, which is also a professionally managed organization with its headquarters located in Kolkata, and with the stewardship resting since 1994 and with the current Managing Director, Mr. Subir Bose. Various manufacturing facilities of the Company are located at the West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Pondicherry, Goa, and Jammu and Kashmir. It has the following subsidiaries such as Beepee Coatings, Berger Jenson & Nicholson (Nepal), Berger Paints (Cyprus) and Berger Paints Overseas. It has also acquired a 100% stake of Motor and the Industrial paints business of the ICI India. It has a technical license agreement with the DuPont Performance in the specific area of automotive coating; Nippon paints for the new generation automotive coating and Orica Australia Pty for protective coating and TIGERWERK Lacku. Farbenfabrik GmbH, Australia for its specialized powder coating. It has a joint venture with Nippon Bee Chemical for the manufacturing of the coatings for plastic substrates used in both automobiles and mobile phones. It also has a wide range of color bank with over 5000 shades. Lewis Berger Color Bank offers digital paint technology through its outlets, which mixes different shades to create desired paint — headquartered at Kolkata, with 11 strategically located manufacturing units and about 170 sales offices and all including those belonging to the 'Company's division and the subsidiaries. It also has an international presence in 3 different countries.

Some of the Awards:

1. The 10th Annual Construction World Global Awards 2012
2. The Genius H.R. Excellence Award 2011 – Excellence in Best Training Initiative Category A – 22nd April 2011, Kolkata.
3. The Readers Digest Gold Award for the most trusted brand – 2008
4. The Best Supplier Award for an outstanding contribution in Product Development from OEM customer M/S Whirlpool –2005, Faridabad.
5. Berger Paints received the 1st rank as the fastest growing paint company at Construction World NICMAR Award –2005, Bengaluru.
6. The Environment Excellence Award for Howrah Works – by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board & Indian Chamber of Commerce – 2001, Kolkata.
7. The Builder Information Bureau (BIB) 2012 Leadership in the paint category.