Bose in Calcutta on Wednesday. (PTI)

Calcutta, July 30: Hit by high raw material costs, Berger Paints will increase its product prices from next month.

“We’re increasing the prices of our oil-based products by 15-20 per cent and that of water-based products by 5-8 per cent from August,” said Subir Bose, managing director, Berger Paints India Ltd, on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting.

“Our input costs in the last few months have gone up significantly following high crude oil and raw material prices, on one hand, and high interest rates, on the other,” he said. “We couldn’t help increasing product prices despite slackening demand. Otherwise, we would not be able to keep our profit margins.”

Overall input costs of the company have increased by more than 20 per cent during the first quarter of the current financial year.

Bose said Berger would complete the acquisition of Poland-based Bolix by August. In April, Berger had said that it was buying Bolix for $38.6 million.

“Following the acquisition, we plan to bring in Bolix’s external insulation finishing products here and at a later date manufacture and sell Berger Paints’ product range in Baltic countries through Poland,” he said.

To fund the Bolix buyout, Berger Paints raised Rs 99 crore through an issue of 2 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 49.50 a share to Jenson & Nicholson (Asia) Ltd, a promoter group company, in May this year.

“We’ll also invest Rs 25 crore in our Goa plant to manufacture solvents. The plant will become operational from September. We’re also investing Rs 25 crore to expand capacity at our Ballabhnagar plant. Besides, Rs 50 crore will be invested for the auto paint plant in Pune which will be ready by September next year,” Bose said.