Nippon Paint launching software to pre-view colours

Hyderabad: Nippon Paint (India) had found a new way to market its paints. The company soon plans launch software that will let buyers envision how their buildings or individual rooms would look, before the paint goes up on the walls.

To be installed at dealer locations, the software would allow customers a virtual walkthrough over the building plan, while letting them mix and match Nippon''s colour range to get a sneak preview and a feel for how a coloured wall would look once painted.

According to company sources, the introduction of this software is a pioneering effort in India, and is expected to be a hit with customers, as it would let people can walk into stores with a CD of the floor plans and figure out exactly how the place would look once finished.

Nippon Paints is also in the process of investing Rs160 crore in a manufacturing each at Chennai and in Gujarat. Presently, the company gets its paint from plants in neighbouring countries. It has a large presence in South India, with about 100 stores, which it plans to double in about a year.

Company''s Nippon Paint''s western and northern rollout are on the backburner, till the company''s plants are get operational sometime in 2008.