Pidilite Industries plans to expand its paints venture, Haisha, into rural and semi-urban areas in select markets, managing director Sudhanshu Vats told FE during an exclusive interaction on Friday.

The company known for the Fevicol and Fevikwik brands will also give its newer brands such as Araldite, Roff and Dr Fixit a fillip as it looks to drive its “growth portfolio”, which contributes around 48% to the topline. The rest 52% comes from core brands Fevicol and Fevikwik within adhesives.

“We would like to achieve an equilibrium at about 50:50 (in terms of revenue share) with our core and growth portfolios,” Vats said. “We can achieve this with sustained investment in our growth portfolio to drive momentum in the business,” he added.

Pidilite has increased marketing investment around brands such as Dr Fixit, which is into waterproofing solutions, as well as Roff, which is into tile and stone adhesives, in the last few months. Activations, both on-ground and on-air, have been amplified to increase awareness, Vats said.

Pidilite closed FY25 with a consolidated topline of Rs 13,094 crore and a bottomline of Rs 2,096 crore, a growth of 6.1% and 20% each versus the previous year. In the March quarter, it clocked net sales of Rs 3,130 crore and a net profit of Rs 428 crore, a growth of 8.3% and 40.5%, respectively, against the same period last year.

Vats further said the company will look at double-digit underlying volume growth and Ebitda margins in the 20-24% bracket in the medium term.

The company is also expected to continue looking at bolt-on acquisitions and partnerships in niche spaces as it taps the larger specialty chemicals and solutions category, the MD said. The move is expected to bolster its pioneer portfolio and help the firm mark its presence in emerging spaces, he added.

Over the last few years, Pidilite has stitched up a number of associations, including acquiring Araldite Rs 2,100-crore from American major Huntsman’s India unit in 2020. Araldite was done to fill up the gap for epoxy adhesives, used mainly to bond metal surfaces.

While its entry into paints has been a bolder bet in terms of diversification for Pidilite, Vats said the journey in the sector would be mapped carefully, given the growing competition within paints.

Pidilite is also said to be in the fray to buy paint maker AkzoNobel India along with JSW Paints and a consortium of Advent International and Indigo Paints, according to sources.

Haisha, which borrows its name from Fevicol’s popular ad tagline of the 1990s called ‘Dum Laga Ke.. Haisha‘, was launched in May 2023 in markets such as Tamil Nadu. It has since been expanded to states such as Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka besides Tamil Nadu, positioning itself as a brand for small-town consumers.

“We have made steady progress with the Haisha project, stepping up our presence in the south and Odisha. We are seeing growth quarter on quarter now and we believe that we have a clear right to win in small-town and Rurban India, which is rural and semi-urban markets, within these markets,” he said.

While a national rollout of Haisha is not expected soon, Vats said the company will continue to expand distribution, monitor demand generation and like-for-like growth in dealer outlets and key towns.