Rishi Laser is a precision steel fabricator that takes flat steel and tubes through cutting, bending, welding and finishing to deliver finished components and large assemblies to industrial original equipment manufacturers - it is not a steel trader or a machine builder, but a manufacturing partner that earns its place by investing in the machinery and customer qualifications that make switching suppliers difficult. Founded in 1992 as one of India’s first laser-cutting shops and originally named Rishi Laser Cutting, the company broadened its scope and renamed itself in 2007, and has since evolved from a high-volume strip supplier into a medium-and-heavy fabrication specialist serving construction equipment, power distribution and rail transport OEMs. The recurring approach is to stay in a niche and go deeper rather than chase volume through price - setting up dedicated plants near large customers, adding finishing capabilities like in-house painting that competitors lack, and letting the capital intensity and qualification timelines of the work create the moat. # Business segments Three fabrication engines serving different industrial OEMs, a growing export stream, and an early-stage robotics venture - all running on a shared six-plant manufacturing network that can cut, bend, weld and finish steel for almost any heavy-industrial customer. ## 1. Medium and heavy fabrication for construction equipment: the anchor engine **A dedicated large-format plant near Bangalore, built to international standards and tied to a global OEM, now supplies the high-value welded assemblies - engine hoods, loader frames, excavator structures - that smaller fabricators cannot handle.** - **The Malur plant changed the game** - before it opened in 2025, the company was losing construction-equipment orders because its older Bangalore factory had no space for bulky assemblies; it was renting three small adjacent units just to cope. The new plant sits on 3 acres with 70,000 sq. ft. of built-up area, crane capacities up to 20 tonnes, and cutting capability through 75mm steel plate, making it the largest and most advanced facility in the company’s network. - **An in-house paint shop raises the bar** - Phase 1 of a paint line became operational at Malur in June 2026, so the company can now deliver painted, ready-to-fit assemblies rather than bare metal fabrications, which command higher realisations and make the customer relationship stickier. - **The anchor customer is building an India supply chain** - the Malur plant is largely dedicated to Caterpillar, which management describes as the most serious global OEM about buying from India and which is also looking to India for aftermarket spares, a high-variety, lower-volume business that suits agile fabricators better than large Chinese suppliers. Volvo, Komatsu and BEML round out the customer list, with Volvo ramping up new models in India. - **Qualification is the moat** - large OEMs have largely stopped issuing vendor codes to new suppliers and are shrinking their vendor base, so the time and investment required to qualify creates a deep barrier around existing relationships. At the same time, small single-location fabricators with ₹25-35 crore in revenue are not investing and are losing ground, favouring larger players. ## 2. Power distribution and electrical equipment: the quiet compounder **Schneider Electric’s unmet order backlog pulls fabrications through the same flexible plant network, and the segment has grown from a sliver of revenue to over a third of the company.** - **Pull demand from a capacity-constrained anchor** - Schneider Electric, the largest customer in this segment, has a large order backlog it cannot fulfil because of imported component shortages, creating steady demand for Rishi Laser’s enclosures, canopies, transformer components and switchgear tanks. - **Same machines, different output** - the company does not operate a separate electricals factory; it uses the same CNC laser cutting, press brakes and welding lines across its six plants to produce switchgear and enclosures under lean manufacturing practices. - **A structural shift in the revenue mix** - this vertical contributed roughly 5% of revenue in FY22, grew to 14% by FY24, and reached 33.6% in FY26, meaning it has diversified the company away from its historical dependence on construction equipment. ## 3. Rail transportation: the lumpy, tender-driven specialist **Metro coach manufacturers need precision-welded underframes, bogie frames and car-body components, and the company has been supplying them since 2009 - but the business arrives in waves tied to government procurement cycles.** - **Certified for the track** - the company holds TUV Rheinland certification for railways, a prerequisite for supplying welded assemblies to metro coach builders like Alstom and Larsen & Toubro. - **Fixed-price, long-supply tenders** - customers in this segment award business through tender routes with fixed prices and long supply periods, which means revenue is predictable once a contract is won but lumpy between tender cycles. The segment’s revenue share has swung from 18% in FY20 to under 1% in FY23 and back to 10.7% in FY26, reflecting the stop-start nature of metro coach procurement. ## 4. Exports: the margin and diversification lever **Indian steel fabrication costs less than half what it costs in Germany or France, and three large international customers - led by Caterpillar’s US aftermarket business - are using that gap to source from the Malur plant.** - **Built to international standards from day one** - the Malur plant was designed for export-quality output, and exports have grown from a single-digit share of revenue (roughly ₹5-10 crore) in FY24 to 14.2% (₹22.83 crore) in FY26. - **Three anchors, not a scattergun** - Caterpillar takes aftermarket spare components for two US plants (small-volume, high-variety parts it cannot source domestically or from China), Emerson Electric commercial exports have already started, and an Australian glass-processing equipment maker placed its first order in June 2024. Management notes that other export customers tend to look at India only when under cost pressure and then cool off. - **The arithmetic is simple** - the cost of steel fabrications from India is less than 50% of the cost in Germany, Poland or France, which is what drives foreign companies to qualify Indian suppliers despite the effort involved. ## 5. Robotics and automation solutions: the option on tomorrow **The company has begun selling robotic systems to other steel fabricators through a technical collaboration with two robot manufacturers - an early-stage bet that turns its own factory-floor know-how into a product.** - **Selling the tools it already uses** - the company operates robotic welding cells in its own plants, and in September 2024 it signed a technical collaboration and sales arrangement to provide advanced robotic systems tailored for the steel fabrication industry. - **A future roadmap, not a current contributor** - the robotics business is identified as a growth avenue in the company’s future plans, but it is at an early stage and not yet a material revenue stream. # Manufacturing footprint and capabilities **Six plants across five states give the company a diversified production base, but the real advantage is that every plant can take steel from sheet or tube to finished assembly under one roof - and the new Malur plant adds a centralised cutting facility that feeds the others.** - **Plants where the skills are, not where the steel is** - the factories are in Bangalore, Pune, Baroda, Chennai and Sonepat because human resources and technical skills are critical to the business, not proximity to raw materials or ports. The combined Bangalore operations (Bommasandra and Malur) now contribute 46% of company revenue. - **The full fabrication chain in-house** - capabilities span CNC fibre laser, plasma and oxyfuel cutting (up to 75mm precision), 25 press brakes from 25 to 500 tonnes (described as the largest capacity in the segment), robotic and manual welding, shot blasting, sandblasting, a seven-tank chemical process, powder coating, and the new paint shop at Malur. - **Capacity is uneven, and that is by design** - Pune and Gujarat have been underutilised while Bangalore and Chennai historically had more business than they could handle; the Malur plant was built specifically to relieve that bottleneck and its large cutting shop now supplies parts to Chennai and the older Bangalore factory. - **Steel is the biggest input and the biggest variable** - various grades of flat steel and tubes constitute a substantial percentage of overall cost, and the company is exposed to steel-price volatility, exchange-rate fluctuations on imported steel and machinery, and government trade policies. # Group structure and partners **A standalone public company with no subsidiaries or joint ventures, a 16% promoter holding, and a management team that has been with the business for decades.** - **Lean corporate structure** - as of FY25, Rishi Laser has no subsidiary, joint venture or associate company; it previously had a vocational education subsidiary that was partly sold to a promoter-family member in June 2022 and ceased to be a subsidiary. - **Founder-led, professionally managed** - Managing Director Harshad Patel founded the original laser-cutting business in 1994 and has over 40 years in the engineering industry; CFO Ganesh Agrawal is a chartered accountant with 30-plus years of experience who joined in 2006. - **Listed, with a wide public float** - shares trade on BSE under scrip code 526861, with promoters holding 16.12% and the public holding 83.88% as of March 2026.