mumbai, Sept. 30 -- After a Diwali that barely had time to light up sales last year, paintmakers are hoping the festive season will bring a fresh coat of growth this time around. Better weather, a longer home-renovation window and an early pickup in demand have raised expectations for a stronger October, even as rising crude prices threaten to keep margins under pressure. For India's second-largest paintmaker Berger Paints, the recovery is already taking shape. "This year, we have already seen a pickup in demand during September. The monsoon has withdrawn from most parts of the country, and rainfall has not been as severe. We expect a much stronger October, and with Diwali falling in early November, we get the benefit of a full October and part of November," said Abhijit Roy, managing director and chief executive officer (MD and CEO), Berger Paints, in an email. The company expects festive-season volume growth to be better than last year, when prolonged rainfall and an early Diwali curtailed the selling window. The Kolkata-headquartered company said that demand has been fairly uniform across both urban and rural markets, with no great difference in overall consumption trends. "In our case, urban markets are growing slightly faster than rural markets because we have established a dedicated team with a sharper focus on urban expansion," said Roy, adding that it has helped accelerate growth. Similarly, India's fourth-largest paintmaker JSW Dulux, formerly AkzoNobel India, expects strong festive-season sales. "We remain positive about the festive-season demand outlook and expect the momentum to remain strong through the peak period. We have already secured sufficient inventory to cover the next three to four months, enabling us to meet demand efficiently and maintain service levels across markets during the season," said Rajiv Rajgopal, joint managing director and CEO of JSW Dulux, in an email. The JSW Group paintmaker sees the festive-season opportunity extending beyond simply fulfilling demand, with a "strong focus on investments in consumer activation, new campaigns for our iconic brands and deeper engagement with architects and retailers," said Rajgopal. However, paintmakers flagged rising crude prices as a key risk, even as they expect demand to extend beyond the festive season. "The key risk remains rising oil prices, which could fuel inflation and put pressure on consumer spending. Barring that, we expect this year to be stronger than last year," said Berger Paints' Roy. "Input prices have risen significantly in recent months, and while we have taken selective price increases, they do not fully offset the increase in raw material costs. Given the continued volatility, we are waiting for prices to stabilize, so that we can take a suitable call whether any further price revisions are required," he added. Mint earlier reported that paintmakers had raised prices and were looking to reduce trade discounts offered to dealers as the West Asia war pushed up crude-linked input costs. The pricing actions also resulted in a better-than-expected June quarter for India's top paint companies, including Asian Paints and Berger Paints. "Crude oil accounts for around 25% of paint companies' input costs. With crude prices rising, companies have already taken aggregate price hikes of around 13%. We saw volume growth of around 9% in the first quarter and expect festive-season volume growth to remain healthy at 8-10%," said Pankaj Pandey, head of retail research at ICICI Securities. With crude prices continuing to rise, companies may consider further price hikes. However, the full benefit of these increases will depend on crude prices stabilizing, as margins are likely to remain under pressure in the near term, said Pandey....