Kennametal India is fundamentally a precision partner to factories - it makes the cutting tools, wear-resistant parts and special-purpose machines that shape metal into everything from car engines to aircraft components. It began in 1964 as Widia (India) Limited and became part of the American industrial technology group Kennametal Inc. in the early 2000s, inheriting over 80 years of materials science. The recurring approach that explains the whole business is competing on the customer’s cost per finished component - using proprietary tungsten carbide technology and application engineering to help manufacturers cut faster, last longer and hold tighter tolerances, rather than simply selling a cheaper tool. # Business segments Two engines built on the same materials science - a hard metal products business that supplies the consumable tooling and wear parts factories need every day, and a smaller capital-equipment business that builds the CNC machines those factories use to make large, complex components. ## 1. Hard Metal Products: the consumable edge that factories wear out and reorder **This is a razor-and-blade business at industrial scale - it sells tungsten carbide cutting inserts, drills, end mills and wear-resistant parts that are consumed in the machining of metal components, generating repeat demand from thousands of factories across automotive, aerospace, energy and general engineering.** - **The material that does the work** - nearly every product starts with tungsten carbide, an ultra-hard compound that can cut steel at high speed and withstand extreme wear. India has no tungsten mine, so 100% of the raw powder is imported, and the company runs its own powder-processing facility in Bangalore to turn it into finished grades. - **Three brands for three price tiers** - the Kennametal brand serves the top end in aerospace and defence, WIDIA is the go-to for general engineering, and MRW (Metal Removal by WIDIA) reaches the MSME segment, so the company captures demand from the premium full-solution buyer down to the performance-value buyer without diluting its flagship name. - **A single integrated campus** - all Indian manufacturing sits on a 27-acre site on Tumkur Road, Bengaluru, including a new metal-cutting-inserts facility opened in November 2022 that consolidated previously scattered production and can double insert capacity as demand grows. - **Sold through a nationwide channel** - roughly 70% of business flows through authorised distributor partners who carry inventory in remote industrial clusters, backed by one of the largest direct sales teams in the country and a dedicated Knowledge Center that trained over 1,000 people in FY25 alone. - **Exports are intercompany scale plays** - the majority of overseas shipments go to parent Kennametal Inc. in the US and Western Europe, in product lines where India’s larger production volumes offer economies of scale that the global group can use. ## 2. Machining Solutions Group: the capital-equipment arm that builds the machine tools **Operating under the WIDMA brand, this business designs and assembles customised CNC machines - horizontal machining centres, vertical turning lathes, deep-hole drilling machines and tool grinders - that customers buy to machine large, complex parts for railways, construction equipment and aerospace.** - **Built to order, not off the shelf** - it is the only company in the global Kennametal group that manufactures customised special-purpose machines, delivering end-to-end from concept and design through assembly to after-sales service from a 75,000 sq. ft Bangalore facility. - **A 35-year reputation with domestic marquees** - the business was built over three-and-a-half decades supporting well-known Indian manufacturers, and has more recently begun exporting standard machines directly to customers in China and other APAC markets, reaching its 100th CNC machine installation in China within two years on a single product category. - **Remote commissioning opens export doors** - the team has demonstrated the ability to commission large special-purpose machines remotely in the UK, China and France from Bengaluru, which reduces the need for on-site engineers in distant markets. - **A small player with a focused niche** - in the broader CNC machine market, Kennametal India is a minor participant, and the strategy is to deepen presence in select product lines and customer segments rather than compete across the full spectrum. # Group structure and partners **Kennametal India is a 75%-owned subsidiary of the American industrial technology group Kennametal Inc., functioning as one of four regional headquarters globally and the group’s fourth-largest manufacturing base.** - The ultimate holding company, Kennametal Inc. of the USA, holds 24% directly and another 51% through its Swiss entity Meturit A.G., giving the group roughly three-quarters ownership of the listed Indian company. - The company previously operated a wholly owned subsidiary, WIDIA India Tooling Private Limited, which traded WIDIA-branded tools through an indirect distributor channel; it was amalgamated back into Kennametal India effective April 2021 to eliminate brand conflict between the two sales forces and offer both Kennametal and WIDIA products under one roof. - Ongoing related-party transactions with the parent include purchase and sale of products and components, cross-charges for IT and services, and a royalty paid at a fixed percentage of net sales for the worldwide licence to use Kennametal Inc.’s intellectual property. - The seven-member Board - three independent directors, three non-executive directors and one managing director - is appointed by shareholders, and the company’s internal audit is run by Ernst & Young India under the monitoring of Kennametal Inc.’s internal audit department.