From Rangwalas to Berger Paints
By
Sonu Bhasin
From Rangwalas to Berger Paints
From Rangwalas to Berger Paints
Anoop Hoon, national sales manager of Asian Paints in the early 1990s remembers the main problem at Berger then was lack of funds. “The problem faced by Berger Paints, particularly in the 1980s, was that the owners were not giving enough capital for capacity expansion. Dhingras understood that what Berger needed was capacity expansion or being able to set up new plants, and to be fully supportive of the professional management team,” he says.
As the new owners, Kuldip and Gurbachan helped the company with the setting up of manufacturing plants across the country. A senior member of the Berger management team says, “Until the early 1990s we used to suffer because our factory in Howrah was at one end of India and we had to supply products across the country from there. Moreover, since paint demand was very seasonal, this used to further complicate supply chain issues for us. From 1996 onwards, we started expanding our factories, first in Puducherry, then in Jammu, then Gujarat, all coming in at regular intervals.” The Dhingras pumped in more & more funds relentlessly through loans, rights issue and preferential issue, so the money was never a constraint for Berger.
Berger Paints soon started to make profits. But the family ploughed back the dividends into the business in the initial years. Even after the financials of the company improved Kuldip did not look at investing in any other business. Paints have remained the focus. “It is a very competitive business and we have to focus on paint and grow only in paint,” says Kuldip. Competition is fierce and the street-smart Kuldip says “we wait for our competitors to make a mistake so that we can cover the gap against them, faster.”
The market cap has only grown over the years and today Berger Paints is the second largest paints company in the country. Kuldip and Gurbachan are the only grandsons of Bhai Kesar Singh who are in the paint manufacturing business. All uncles have passed away and the cousins are out of the business except one who is a large paint trader. This Dhingra family is also the biggest in terms of wealth.
Preserving The Legacy and Building the Future
What differentiated this Dhingra family from the rest of them to reach this position, I ask. “Our circumstances were very different from the rest of the family,” says Gurbachan. “We did not have anything to fall back on,” he adds. The brothers, therefore, fell back on their spirit of enterprise and hard work. Having started and grown the business from scratch, Kuldip and Gurbachan look back with deep satisfaction on the one hand; on the other, they both are happy that at least one of their children each has chosen to be part of the Family Business. Rishma, eldest daughter of Kuldip, and Kanwardip, son of Gurbachan, are part of the Board and the management to learn about the business before they too take on the mantle of Owner Partners.
The Dhingra brothers appear to be in a happy place. Both of them are outdoor enthusiasts, and no family holiday is complete without some adventurous activity, much to the chagrin of their wives! Closer to home, both brothers find deep satisfaction in engaging in activities that bring them joy. Kuldip, always an athlete, finds his greatest joy in the temperature-controlled swimming pool at his bungalow. “Now I can swim every day of the year,” says Kuldip in a satisfied and contented voice. On the other hand, Gurbachan has a water body in his farmhouse where he breeds fish. “Some of them have grown to almost 4 kgs,” he says proudly. Despite being among the wealthiest individuals in the country and leading one of the largest paint companies, it is the simple things in life that bring them profound joy.
Like his brother Kuldip, Gurbachan has a black and white photograph of the Rangwala family from the late 1800s hanging on his wall. It depicts a contented and happy family. Just below this photo, he has a more recent color photograph of the entire Niranjan Singh family. The picture clearly captures a prosperous Sikh family gathered to celebrate a wedding. The patriarch, Kuldip Singh, sits in the center with a look of pride on his face. He is surrounded by men and women of various ages, some sitting with their chests out, smiling into the camera, while the younger ones stand. The women, dressed in vibrant colors, gaze confidently at the camera with smiles. Children of all ages sit at the feet of the elders.
It feels as though nothing has changed in the 125 years of legacy that have passed between the black and white photograph and the color photograph, except, of course, the addition of more vibrant colors to the Rang-wala Family.
About the author – SONU BHASIN is one of the early women professionals in the corporate world. She has led various businesses in senior leadership positions during her career, including when she was a part of the TAS (Tata Administrative Service), ING Barings, Axis Bank, Yes Bank and Tata Capital Limited.
Bhasin is an independent director on boards of well-known and reputed domestic and multinational companies. As part of her work now, she focuses on family businesses, and is the founder of Families and Business (FAB).
She is a family business historian, a business author and the editor-in-chief of Families & Business magazine. She has been named one of the Global 100 Most Influential Individuals for family enterprises in 2020. Sonu has a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.
