Soujanya Color has been in the coating industry for the last 40 years and presently it is deepening its footprint in beauty, color, cosmetics, home care, and automotive refinish through water-based chemistries, tinting, colorants, and others. How has been the journey for Soujanya Color?

It has been an exciting journey of continuous learning, evolution, and reinvention. Our motto, “Rooted for the Future,” perfectly captures the ethos of our ongoing journey. The roots represent our values, technical excellence, depth of knowledge, and strong foundations that have been built over four decades. The branches represent newer markets, emerging verticals, global opportunities, and our ambition to evolve into a leadership position across color, care, and cure. Every phase of growth has brought new challenges and new opportunities. 

While our foundations remain unchanged, our willingness to evolve has allowed us to expand from coatings into adjacent sectors such as beauty, personal care, home care, life sciences, and advanced materials. We believe the future belongs to companies that can combine deep expertise with the courage to continuously reinvent themselves.

Soujanya Color has reported steady revenue growth in recent years along with significant improvement in EBITDA and profitability. Company’s performance with respect to revenue and profit in FY 2025-26 and the key factors that drove margin expansion?

Today, uncertainty has become the new normal. Increasing supply chain complexity, rapidly evolving customer expectations, and a growing shift towards solution-oriented business models have significantly increased level of complexity across industry. In response, we doubled down on operational excellence and made data the king. 

Over the last few years, we have systematically eliminated inefficiencies from our formulation, production, and inventory management. Simultaneously, we shifted our product mix toward high-value solutions that leverage our chemistry, engineering, and application expertise. This transition from volume-driven sales to specialized expertise—solving complex challenges like paint flocculation and executing intricate life sciences transformations—has driven significant margin expansion.

The company has built one of Asia’s largest automated color manufacturing facilities. How is automation and digital manufacturing helping improve product consistency, cost optimization, and scalability?

We pioneered automation in India’s chemical sector over fifteen years ago. Built with advanced process controls, our facility was engineered well ahead of its time.

As we expand into new facilities, we are redefining automation by today’s standards. Digital manufacturing goes beyond simple automation—it drives visibility, predictive capabilities, real-time decision-making, and speed. Harnessing this data allows us to maximize profitability, streamline operations, and deliver exceptional consistency across high production volumes.

The opportunity is not to deploy technology simply because it is fashionable. The real opportunity lies in identifying areas where it can genuinely create value, whether through predictive maintenance, accelerated R&D cycles, digital color matching, formulation optimization, or faster customer response times. That is where the next wave of transformation will come from.

Soujanya Color is planning to open a new factory in JNPT premises catering to exports in Q3 of FY 2026-27. Capex invested in the new facility and when are you planning to commission the facility?

Phase I of JNPT expansion represents an investment of nearly Rs. 100 crore. We are extremely excited about this milestone and are currently on track to commission the facility towards the end of Q3 FY 2026-27. The project reflects our long-term confidence in global markets and our commitment to creating world-class manufacturing infrastructure capable of serving customers across continents.

What products are you planning to manufacture in the new plant and countries where you are planning to export? 

The new facility will focus on colorants, coatings, printing inks, and niche cosmetic ingredients. Its strategic location within the JNPT Special Economic Zone allows us to establish it as a dedicated export-oriented unit. Our products already serve customers across more than 50 countries, and this facility will further strengthen our ability to cater to growing demand across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Applications will span paints and coatings, printing inks, personal care, home care, automotive refinish, and specialty industrial segments.

How will this new plant help in increasing top line and bottom line of Soujanya Color in the next 3-5 years?

Our new facility will effectively double our manufacturing capacity. Beyond driving revenue, this expansion will strengthen EBITDA margins through improved economies of scale, operational efficiencies, product mix optimization, and deeper reach into high-growth export markets. Our goal is centered on becoming more efficient, resilient, and value-driven.

The company is also elevating its portfolio with a new scalable Zinc Oxide for suncare which will help in accelerating work in pharma and biotech sectors. How are you planning to leverage pharma and biotech sectors?

We are proud to highlight one of our most exciting innovations: our award-winning Zinc Oxide dispersion. This breakthrough resolves a major pain point in skincare by completely eliminating the white cast typical of traditional mineral sunscreens. Drawing on 40 years of expertise in advanced dispersion technology, we have reimagined this staple ingredient to allow for exceptionally high active loading and superior SPF performance. Beyond consumer sun care, this technology opens promising new pathways for pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications.

Our focus is on improving lives through complex chemistry. This includes scaling difficult intermediates, developing smarter excipients that improve drug delivery, and creating targeted probiotic strain blends for specific health outcomes. For us, the opportunity in life sciences extends far beyond products. It is about applying scientific expertise to solve meaningful healthcare challenges.

The company is focusing on battery manufacturers with Carbon Black doped with Lithium Phosphate. What's the use of this product and how is it beneficial?

Battery manufacturers face severe bottlenecks in wet chemistry processes, primarily due to the difficulty of maintaining stable conductive dispersions.  Our solution eliminates this hurdle. By supplying pre-engineered, highly stable conductive systems, we allow manufacturers to streamline production, maximize assembly line efficiency, and significantly boost overall throughput.

Carbon black is notoriously difficult to stabilize uniformly, and even minor variations can impact conductivity and battery performance. Our expertise in dispersion science enables us to address these stability challenges, helping customers achieve greater consistency, reduced process variability, and improved manufacturing efficiency.

Exports continue to be a major growth driver for the specialty colorants industry. What is your strategy for expanding global footprint?

Today, Soujanya serves customers across more than 50 countries spanning six continents. While the number itself is encouraging, market share is more important. Beyond market share, what matters most is impact and how closely customers consider us a trusted partner. We aim to be the industry's partner of choice by delivering reliable execution, application-oriented performance, and exceptional technological value.

Indian companies are now preferred global partners due to their agility, technical expertise, and innovation, moving far beyond basic cost advantages. Customers engage us as strategic peers and subject matter experts, actively seeking our insights on emerging solutions in mature sectors like inks and coatings. Our new JNPT SEZ facility underscores this ongoing transition into a highly connected, global enterprise.

Raw material price volatility remains a key challenge for pigment and colorant manufacturers. How has Soujanya Color strengthened its supply chain resilience and pricing strategy to protect margins?

During periods of disruption, the true strength of long-standing relationships becomes evident. These relationships go far beyond commercial transactions. Through careful contingency planning, close supplier engagement, and proactive firefighting wherever required, we have been able to maintain full demand compliance despite challenging market conditions.

I share this not as a point of pride, but with humility. Anyone involved in manufacturing understands the daily discipline, communication, and alignment required across suppliers, customers, and internal teams to achieve this level of continuity. Supply chain resilience is ultimately built on relationship and one decision at a time.

What demand trends are you witnessing from end-use sectors such as textiles, home care, personal care, packaging, paints, and agriculture?

Many critics view these industries as commoditised, but I see a massive opportunity for technological innovation. Today's customers eagerly embrace collaboration and willingly challenge traditional assumptions to rethink formulations. Together, we can co-develop solutions that deliver measurable value. Product development has never been more exciting; innovation is no longer trapped in labs. Instead, it thrives through powerful supplier-customer partnerships that actively challenge the status quo.

How is Soujanya Color investing in R&D and regulatory compliance to stay ahead of evolving global standards?

Sustainability and regulatory compliance are no longer separate initiatives; they are deeply woven into our daily operations and product development. True progress begins with measurement. Over the past few years, we've set ambitious internal targets for environmental impact, safety, and efficiency, tracking our journey rigorously through data-driven systems.

From an R&D perspective, our focus continues to be on water-based technologies, low-VOC systems, safer chemistries, and formulations that deliver performance while remaining aligned with evolving global regulations. However, product development is only one part of the story. 

We have always operated our own effluent treatment facilities, and as we build our next generation of manufacturing infrastructure, we are rethinking every aspect of sustainability, from cleaner energy systems and resource efficiency to waste management and environmental stewardship. 

The goal is not simply compliance but to build facilities that are future-ready. Equally important is our commitment to people. I believe that companies which embed sustainability into their culture and daily operations rather than treating it as a reporting exercise will be the ones that create lasting value in the decades ahead.

With increasing competition from global and domestic specialty chemical players, what differentiates Soujanya Color in terms of technology, product innovation, and customer engagement?

Our strongest differentiators are technology, responsiveness, and domain expertise. Customers rarely just buy our products; they bring us their toughest challenges. Whether solving for color performance, regulatory compliance, or processing efficiency, we combine technical skill with agile collaboration. This allows us to move faster, customize deeply, and deliver measurable business outcomes. In a market of lookalike products, trust and execution are our true value.

What is the future outlook for Soujanya Color over the next 3–5 years?

Over the next three to five years, Soujanya is entering an exciting phase of global expansion. We see high-growth potential in colorants, advanced coatings, personal care, life sciences, and specialty dispersions, alongside high-value export markets. Our future will be driven by digital manufacturing, advanced dispersion science, sustainable chemistry, and data-backed product development. Ultimately, our mission is clear: to deliver global value across color, care, and cure. While industries, technologies, and markets evolve, our dedication to technical excellence, customer success, and long-term value remains absolute. We stay true to our roots while driving toward the future.