Berger's Russian unit to go on stream by May 2006

Berger Paints is hoping to commission it's decorative paints unit at Russia by May 2006. The company is investing around US $ 2 million for setting up the decorative paints facility at Krasandar in South Russia. This was disclosed here by the chairman of Berger Paints India, Kuldeep Singh Dhingra. He was talking to reporters after the annual general meeting of the outfit.

"Berger Paints Overseas Ltd, our Russian subsidiary will start production by the middle of next year. During the interim period we have started exporting paints to Russia through Berger India," he said. Berger India holds the Russian subsidiary through another subsidiary Berger Cyprus.

According to Dhingra, the production capacity of the Russian plant will be around 1000 ton per day. "It will be sold only in Russia. We shall expand our activity in South Russia as we feel that it is a very lucrative market," he said. Berger Paints Chairman also pointed out that the company will continuously look for opportunities abroad as part of its expansion program.

Commenting on the plastic auto parts coating facility at Gurgaon, he said that this unit will be operational by end of July 2006. Berger already have a technical tie up with Nippon Bee Chemicals Co of Japan for the plant. The company is investing Rs 15 crore for the plant.

According to him, the work on installation of powder coating plant at Jammu is also moving ahead with technical collaboration from Tigerwerk Gmbh of Austria. "With all this we are hoping to achieve 15 per cent growth in the current fiscal," he said. Incidentally, Berger has achieved a 74 per cent growth in the net profit.