JSW to put ₹65 crore Dulux royalty savings back into India's competitive paints business to widen market share

The JSW Group, which acquired Akzo Nobel India Ltd last year, plans to plough the money that used to be paid as royalty for the Dulux brand back into its paints business and widen its market share.JSW Paints acquired the decorative paints business of Akzo Nobel India, which includes the popular Dulux brand, for ₹9,000 crore in June 2025. Earlier, 3% of the value of decorative paints sales was paid as royalty to its global parent for use of the brand, but that has now stopped.“In the month of June 2025, we acquired the decorative IP and the Dulux brand is now owned by Akzo Nobel India… So, the royalty ceased to exist, which translates to roughly around 60 crore to 65 crore rupees, depending on the revenue trajectory,” Krishna R, chief financial officer of Akzo Nobel India, said during a post-earnings interaction with analysts.

“And that amount… we are committed to redeploy towards growth initiatives and to gain market share.”He clarified that royalty payments had two components previously— decorative paints and industrial coatings.“As far as industrial coatings is concerned, Akzo Nobel will continue to be the technological partner and we continue to pay the royalty as per the previous agreements,” he said.Akzo Nobel India paid ₹139.8 crore as royalty for decorative paints and industrial coatings to its former Dutch parent Akzo Nobel Coatings International in FY25. Decorative paints are used for homes and buildings and are mainly sold through dealers and retail stores, whereas industrial coatings are used on machines, cars and in factories.However, even as it exits royalty obligations linked to the Dulux decorative paints business, the company could be burdened with royalty payments for the use of the “JSW” brand following