Brands
Birla Opus: A Bold New Player Emerges
MUMBAI: Imagine an industry so settled, so entrenched, that innovation has become a foreign concept. For decades, India’s decorative paints market has been a closed ecosystem, a carefully guarded territory where a few giants played by unwritten rules. Consumers had limited choices, contractors followed established patterns, and the market seemed frozen in time.
Enter Birla Opus – a disruptor armed with more than just pigments and promises. And it’s led by RakshitHargave who isn’t your typical corporate executive. When he speaks about the paint industry, there’s a spark of rebellion in his voice. “The competitive intensity hasn’t been high,” he says, a statement that sounds more like a challenge than an observation.
This isn’t just another corporate expansion. It’s a calculated assault on an industry that has grown fat and lazy.
To understand Birla Opus’s strategy, one must first comprehend the unique ecosystem of India’s paint market. Unlike most consumer industries, this is a three-dimensional chess game involving contractors, dealers, and end-consumers. Each group has distinct motivations, distinct pain points.
Most companies focus on one – Birla Opus is playing a multi-dimensional game. And it’s doing it as though it’s on steroids. Numbers tell a compelling story. In just its first year, Birla Opus has reached 6,000 towns, established over 140 depots and hosted more than 150 exhibitions nationwide
These aren’t just statistics. They’re strategic footprints designed to dismantle existing market barriers.
Traditional paint companies treated contractors as mere distribution channels. Birla Opus sees them as partners.
“We’re the first to host nationwide exhibitions allowing painters and contractors to experience products firsthand,” Hargave explains. It’s an industry-first initiative that speaks volumes about the company’s approach.
India’s paint market has always had regional dynamics. South India traditionally belonged to one dominant player, while North and East remained multi-brand territories. Birla Opus has defied these traditional boundaries and has spread its colour nationally.
“The gap between our best and relatively slower regions is just 110 versus 90,” Hargave notes – a testament to thecmpany’snational appeal and availability.
In the paint industry, logistics isn’t a support function. It’s the backbone of the entire operation.Birla Opus has turned this into a competitive advantage. It has the record of fulfilling orders within four to six hours while it delivers in surrounding regions by the next day. To achieve that Hargave has five factories whipping up the paint with a sixth coming up in Kharagpur. Additionally, the company has strategically mapped depots near manufacturing facilities in order to ship out the product as quickly as possible.
Where traditional brands whispered, Birla Opus is screaming from every possible platform. It has taken marketing and branding to a totally different level for a debutante by going after tentpole properties on television. For starters, cricket which isn’t just a sport in India. It’s a religion. Birla Opus secured prime sponsorshipsfor the ongoing IPL, the T20 World Cup and all bilateral series. And it has dug its marketing heels into entertainment by partnering with reality shows like Indian Idol and Sa re ga ma pa. However, Hargave admits that “cricket remains a key driver for consumer traction,”
The brand has understood in modern consumption driven new India and Bharat there has been a crucial psychological shift. Painting is no longer a maintenance chore – it’s a lifestyle statement. And to pander to that the company’s campaign ‘Naya Zamane Ka Naya Paint’ isn’t selling colour. It’s selling aspiration, modernity, self-expression.
Rs 10,000 crore in three years might sound like corporate hubris. But Hargave is quietly confident. “We are exactly where we aimed to be at the end of our first year,” he states.
This isn’t just a corporate expansion. It’s a statement about Indian entrepreneurship. About challenging established narratives. About proving that with the right strategy, you can disrupt even the most settled industries.
Will Birla Opus sustain its momentum? The paint is still wet, the canvas still incomplete. But one thing is certain – the company has already redrawn the industry’s boundaries.
In a market long dominated by legacy brands more interested in protecting territory than innovating, Birla Opus is not just selling paint.
Hargave and his team are painting a revolution.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
Brands
Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion
Bengaluru: Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.
The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.
The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.
Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.
To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.
Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.
Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.
The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.
The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.
Brands
TechnoSport taps quick commerce with launch on Slikk’s 60-minute platform
NATIONAL: TechnoSport has launched on Slikk, the ultra-fast fashion app offering 60-minute delivery, as the activewear brand accelerates its push into quick commerce to capture Gen Z and young millennial shoppers.
The debut brings more than 150 high-performance styles to Slikk’s platform, with an average selling price of Rs 450, expanding TechnoSport’s reach across over 80 pin codes.
The partnership follows strong momentum for TechnoSport across Q-commerce channels, where the brand has recorded around 60 per cent volume growth over the past six months. The company expects quick commerce to contribute nearly 20 per cent of its revenue in the coming years as hyperlocal delivery gains scale.
Slikk, which recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed, has rapidly gained popularity among youth consumers seeking speed, trend relevance and impulse-led shopping experiences.
Activewear remains one of Slikk’s fastest-growing categories, driven by shoppers increasingly treating fitness-led fashion as an everyday essential. The platform has reported a 30-fold year-on-year increase in items sold, reflecting rising demand for performance wear that blends comfort with style.
TechnoSport chief executive officer Puspen Maity, said the collaboration would help the brand engage more closely with young consumers whose fashion choices are shaped by instant needs and lifestyle aspirations. He added that rapid delivery bridges the gap between intent and purchase, allowing shoppers to access activewear exactly when they want it.
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