Kesar Petroproducts is a chemical manufacturer that turns crude oil derivatives into the intense blue and green pigments found in paints, plastics, printing inks and packaging - and it has quietly turned what was once factory waste into a second business selling fertilisers and anti-corrosion paint ingredients. Founded in 1990 and operating from a single campus in Maharashtra’s industrial belt, the company has grown to supply roughly 15% of India’s copper phthalocyanine market and exports to about 55 countries. The recurring pattern is vertical integration: make the base crude pigment, sell some as-is, convert the rest into higher-value finished pigments, and now capture value from the by-products that used to be discarded - each step built on the chemistry of the one before it.
Business segments
Three engines running on a single chemical backbone - a pigment business that supplies colour to global industry, a co-products stream that turns waste into fertilisers and anti-corrosion materials, and a captive power plant that cuts the energy bill for both.
1. Phthalocyanine pigments: the colour engine that everything else rides on
A vertically integrated maker of blue and green pigments, selling both the crude base and the finished colour to industrial buyers across 55 countries, with roughly 15% of the domestic market.
- Makes the base and the finished product - the foundational output is Copper Phthalocyanine (CPC) Blue Crude, which is both sold directly to customers and used as the raw material to manufacture downstream pigments: Alpha Blue, Beta Blue, and Pigment Green 7. This means the company controls its own supply of the key intermediate, insulating it partly from raw material price swings.
- One campus, seven plants - all manufacturing happens at Lote Parshuram in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, where total installed pigment capacity is 1,500 metric tons per month and actual output runs at about 1,000 tons across the four product lines. The site is ISO 9001:2015 certified and located near raw material sources in what management calls the “Chemical Belt of Maharashtra”.
- India dominates this colour space - the country commands 80% of the global blue and green pigment market, and within India, blue and green pigments account for about 80% of the total pigment industry. KPL’s 15% domestic share makes it a significant player, though its product line is concentrated in phthalocyanines and its manufacturing is geographically concentrated at a single site - both flagged as risks.
- China went from customer to competitor - a countervailing duty imposed by China on Indian phthalocyanine imports caused the loss of that market, turning Chinese producers into global rivals. Competitors at home include Narayan Organics, Asahi Songwon Colors (which exports to only 20 countries), and Meghmani Organics (where pigments are a smaller part of a larger agrochemicals business).
2. Co-products: fertilisers and anti-corrosion intermediates from yesterday’s waste
By capturing materials that were once lost in wastewater, the company now produces complex fertilisers and zinc phosphate for anti-corrosion paints - creating new revenue without new raw material costs.
- Waste turned into product - the pigment manufacturing process yields ammonia, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid as by-products; these are now used to make complex fertilisers and zinc phosphate, an intermediate for anti-corrosion paints used in automotive manufacturing, aftermarket coatings and infrastructure projects. The fertiliser output is small by industry standards - management calls it “a pin drop” compared to pure fertiliser companies - but it generates revenue from inputs already on hand.
- Built from scratch with Rs. 15 crore - a dedicated fertiliser unit at the Ratnagiri site began water trials in January 2025 and started commercial production in May 2025, with an initial capacity of 6,000 tonnes per year, later approved for expansion to 12,000 tonnes. The investment was funded partly by a Rs. 6.60 crore loan and partly from internal accruals.
- Cleaning the water also boosts pigment output - the by-product recovery process is tied to the company’s zero liquid discharge system, a Rs. 60 crore investment that aims to eliminate wastewater and reduce fresh water intake to practically nothing. Critically, running the fertiliser unit is expected to lift pigment output: CPC Blue Crude from roughly 600 to 900 tons per month, Alpha Blue from 150 to 200 tons, and Beta Blue from 250 to 300 tons.
- Demand rides on farming and Make-in-India - fertiliser sales are supported by government subsidies, rising agricultural demand and a push for domestic self-sufficiency, while zinc phosphate demand is driven by growth in automotive coatings and infrastructure anti-corrosion projects under the Make-in-India programme. The company plans to add two more by-product plants alongside the existing one.
Captive power and co-generation
A 1.5 MW co-generation plant on campus burns waste and cuts coal consumption by half, lowering the energy bill for both the pigment and fertiliser operations.
- Power for the campus, not for sale - the co-generation (combined heat and power) plant’s entire output is consumed in-house to support pigment and fertiliser manufacturing. It is one of seven plants on the Ratnagiri site.
- Coal use cut by roughly half - the plant is designed to reduce coal consumption by up to approximately 50%, with annual cost savings of $0.4 million from the co-generation facility, and expected to reach $1.5 million once the Pollution Control Board grants consent to co-process hazardous waste. The full coal reduction is targeted from FY2027.
- Exploring acid-based power - the company is also investigating power generation through sulphuric acid as an alternate energy source, though this remains at an exploratory stage.
Group structure and partners
A standalone listed company with no subsidiaries or joint ventures, controlled by its promoters and operating from a single manufacturing campus.
- Listed, no group companies - Kesar Petroproducts is a public limited company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, with no subsidiaries, associate companies or joint ventures as of the latest filings. It was previously an associate of Shreyas Intermediates Limited, holding a 37% stake, but sold a 9.46% stake in September 2023, reducing its holding to about 28%.
- Promoter-held - the Promoter and Promoter Group held 63.85% of shares as of FY21, with Chairman Mr. Dinesh Shankarlal Sharma personally holding 30.41% of total share capital as of FY25. Total issued equity shares stood at roughly 9.67 crore with a face value of Re. 1 each.