Paint maker ICI India Ltd announced Thursday that it will set up a new decorative paints plant, with a capacity of over 100 million litres per year, by 2010.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the company, ICI India managing director Rajiv Jain said: 'We are looking to put up a greenfield plant, the location for this has not been finalised yet.'

'It would be a decorative paints manufacturing unit. The capacity of the plant would be in excess of 100 million litres a year,' he added.

A project team has already been formed and the company expects to finalise the project by the end of this calendar year.

The company at present has a capacity to manufacture 120 million litres every year. It produces both decorative and refinished paints.

ICI India has existing plants at Mumbai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. The company last constructed the Chandigarh plant 10 years back.

The company has increased product prices several times in the last three months to deal with the high prices of crude oil, which is a major component of paints.

ICI hiked prices by two to three percent in June and July and intends to increase it by the same percentage in August.

The company has an investible surplus of Rs.10 billion.

ICI also announced that it has posted a net profit of Rs.708 million ($16.85 million) in the first quarter of the current fiscal compared to Rs.228 million over the same period last year.

Jain added that the company has plans to open 300 brand stores, or Design Studios, in the next three years.

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