In conversation with Ankur Shah, Managing Director, Krishna Defence and Allied Industries Ltd

We are keenly monitoring multiple government initiatives under ‘Make in India’ programme, encouraging indigenous defence equipment manufacturing in the country; asserts Ankur Shah, Managing Director, Krishna Defence and Allied Industries Ltd

What are the core competencies of Krishna Defence & Allied Industries Limited?    

Krishna Defence & Allied Industries Ltd is an engineering company. We thrive upon our technical strength to build newer & innovative products for both the defence as well as the dairy industries. We have focussed on research & development since our inception; it is our core strength and we successfully developed & launched multiple products that proved to be a pioneer in the market and in the country.  

Currently, India has a defence budget of approximately Rs 5.25 lakh crore while 68 per cent has been earmarked for the capital procurement in promoting ‘Make in India’ i.e. for indigenous manufacturing. As per the Union Finance Defence Budget of FY22, the Indian Navy received a 43 per cent capital outlay hike as compared to the previous year. Amidst the rising geopolitical tensions across the globe, it is crucial that India augment and rely on indigenous defence manufacturing on the back of state-of-the-art technology & innovations.  

We bank on 25 successful years of manufacturing excellence. We manufacture over 20 indigenous products; a few of which, were pioneered, designed, and developed entirely by us. 

One of the most common questions people ask me is, ‘what is the connection between dairy & defence industries’. I humbly reply that ‘it is engineering’. All our verticals consistently work towards innovating with the latest technology and use top-notch precision engineering techniques to develop durable, globally competent indigenous products for defence, homeland security, dairy, and mega kitchen industries. 

What are your segment-wise revenue breakup and growth trajectory? Please share the segment-wise growth outlook for Krishna Defence.  

The defence vertical generates 70 per cent of our revenue while the remaining 30 per cent is generated majorly via the dairy vertical. Both defence and dairy sectors show great promise of exponential growth, owing to government initiatives in defence manufacturing & increase in commercialisation of dairy operations across the country. We are extremely enthusiastic about our new venture into the homeland security vertical as it holds a great scope for expansion and interesting opportunities to showcase our capabilities.  

What are your profit margins across business segments?   

EBDITA margins in the defence are in the range of 20 per cent to 25 per cent while in the dairy, it’s about 5 per cent to 10 per cent. 

On a consolidated basis, what are your revenue goals in the next three years?    

We are keenly monitoring multiple government initiatives under ‘Make in India’ programme, encouraging indigenous defence equipment manufacturing in the country. The management is confident about an extremely favourable outlook for the next few years and is looking at a 40 per cent-50 per cent growth in the top line of the business. 

What are the most promising opportunities faced by your company at this point in time?  

We are very excited to contribute to a new Indian Navy Project for the development of ammunition. The entire team is proud and pumped with this opportunity bestowed on us by the Indian Navy.