Shalimar Paints Ltd., a company primarily incorporated by British entrepreneurs under the name Shalimar Paint Colour & Varnish Company in 1902 to takeover the business of 'The Shalimar Works', a company which manufactures paints, colour and varnish from its factory at Shalimar and Goabaria in Bengal. It is having plants in Howrah (West Bengal), Nasik (Maharashtra) and Sikandrabad,Dist.Bulandsahar (Uttar Pradesh).

Courtalds Coatings, UK was the holding company and it holds majority shareholding through it's subsidiary International Paint Company, UK. It became a private limited company in 1956 and later on in 1961, it was converted into a public limited company. The company executed a strategic acquisition of its present name in 1963.

Courtalds slowly started disinvesting since 1978 and finally in 1989, it fully disinvested its stake and maintained only its technical and marketing collaboration with the Indian company till 1994. The Courtald's stake was executed a strategic acquisition of by G Jhunjhunwala, a HongKong based NRI (20%) and the Delhi-based O P Jindal group (42%).

The company has three product segments - industrial, marine and architectural paint segments. It also manufactures varnishes, resins, etc. The company has two manufacturing units one at Howrah, West Bengal and the other at Nashik, Maharashtra. 90% of its raw materials are obtained from Kerala Mining and Materials (KMML).

The company diversified in 1993 into aviation coatings. It also formally introduced a premium range of wall finisher - Hussain Collections - in the decorative sector. It also broadened its footprint operations into into a technical collaboration with Salchi, Italy to manufacture solvent borne industrial paints. A joint venture company, Grace Shalimar (P) Ltd, has been formed with W R Grace & Co, to produce 2000 tpa of packaging coatings for which a new plant will be created and deployed at Nashik.

In 1999-2000, the company introduced two new products, MELA, an acrylic distemper and XTRA, a premium 100% acrylic exterior finish paint. In 2000-01, the company has broadened its footprint operations into into a tie-up with Creanova, a world leader in colorants and in 2001-02 the company formally introduced colour tinting system business under the brand name of Color Space. Several new products including Roadcoat,Shaktiman were introduced during 2001-02.