Shalimar Wires Industries is a manufacturer of the consumable engineered textiles that paper mills cannot run without - the moving belts and screens inside every paper-making machine. The company emerged from a BIFR rehabilitation scheme in 2010, which still shapes its capital structure, and has since shed an unrelated wire business to become a pure-play supplier of Paper Machine Clothing (PMC). Its recurring approach is to modernise its single West Bengal plant with imported European machinery, develop new fabric designs, and use its understanding of Asian paper-making conditions to chase export growth while Indian paper demand expands at about 8% a year.
Business segments
Two engines that are really one - a core consumables business for paper mills and a smaller metal-weaving line that feeds the same customer base, both made in the same factory with the same machines.
1. Paper Machine Clothing: the repeat-purchase consumable that keeps paper mills running
Paper mills replace these engineered fabrics and wire cloths continuously as they wear, so revenue is tied to paper production volumes, not one-off equipment sales.
- Consumable, not capital equipment - the company makes forming fabrics, dryer fabrics, and spiral belts that function as the moving belts inside paper machines, and because they wear out with use, mills must reorder regularly, creating a repeat-purchase model.
- Made on imported European looms - the Uttarpara plant runs on machinery sourced from Schlatter in Germany and seaming equipment from Austria, with one new loom added in FY26 and more imported looms and seaming machines commissioned in prior years to expand capacity and product range.
- Sells to more than 600 Indian paper mills - India is the world’s fifth-largest paper producer at over 20 million tonnes, and the fastest-growing market globally, with production projected to reach 28-30 million tonnes by 2029-30, so the domestic customer base is large and expanding.
- Export growth built on Asian know-how - the company believes real paper-making growth is shifting to Asia because of raw-material availability and cheaper labour, and it claims sufficient knowledge of Asian paper-making conditions to give it an edge in export markets, with export turnover of roughly Rs. 30.5 crore in FY26.
- Competes on quality, not price - competition among PMC manufacturers is fierce and pricing pressure is constant, so the company’s stated strategy is to maintain high quality standards, develop new fabric designs, and modernise after-sales service rather than fight on cost alone.
2. Metal-weaving and dandy rolls: a niche line inside the same factory
The company also weaves metal wire cloths and builds dandy rolls - the cylinders that put watermarks into paper - for the same mills that buy its synthetic fabrics.
- A complementary product for paper mills - dandy rolls and accessories are components used in paper manufacturing for watermarking and sheet formation, sold alongside the company’s synthetic PMC products to the same B2B customer base.
- A new business horizon in metal weaving - management expects to create fresh domestic and export markets in the metal-weaving segment, suggesting this smaller line is being positioned for growth even as the core PMC business expands.
- Subject to government cost records - metal wire cloth is one of the products for which the company must maintain cost records under Section 148(1) of the Companies Act, 2013, reflecting its regulated status as an industrial product.
Group structure and partners
A standalone manufacturer with a BIFR legacy, controlled by the Khaitan family through a cluster of promoter holding companies, and rated BB+ by CARE.
- Promoter-controlled through layered holdings - the promoter group holds stakes through several entities, with Reliance Sheet Works Pvt Ltd at 16.96% and Amit Commercial Co. Ltd at 16.91% being the largest, alongside smaller holdings by Sumangla Investment, Esquire Engineering, Shalimar Holding, and others.
- Father-and-son leadership - the board has five directors: Mr. Sunil Khaitan as Chairman and Managing Director, his son Mr. Vedant Khaitan as Joint Managing Director, and three independent directors, with a President and CFO handling day-to-day financial management.
- BIFR-era debts still on the books - certain unsecured loans from promoters and bodies corporate, taken under the 2010 rehabilitation scheme, are repayable only after all settled secured-creditor dues are paid, with no interest accruing on them, and public debentures from the same era are paid only when redemption requests come in.
- Banking with Kotak Mahindra and rated BB- - the company uses working-capital facilities from Kotak Mahindra Bank, and its long-term credit rating was upgraded to CRISIL BB-/Stable with a short-term rating of CRISIL A4+, an improvement from the earlier CRISIL B+ rating.
- No foreign collaborations, no subsidiaries of substance - the company operates as a standalone entity with no foreign partnerships, and its equity investments in entities like Shalimar Impel, Satya Sons Services, and Anil Special Steel are small and fully provided for impairment.