Waterbase is a shrimp company that built itself from the pond up - it hatches the larvae, makes the feed, sells the farm-care products, and processes the catch for export, all under one roof. The business was founded in 1987 as a fully-integrated aquaculture export unit and listed in 1991, promoted by the century-old Karam Chand Thapar Group. The recurring approach is to own every link in the chain - from hatchery to fork - so it can control quality, trace every shrimp, and sell a premium product while using one part of the business to feed the next. # Business segments Three engines at different stages - a feed-and-farm-care cash cow that dominates the pond-side relationship, a restarted processing-and-export business that turns the harvest into dollars, and a small hatchery that supplies the seed stock - each built on the farmer relationships of the one before. ## 1. Shrimp feed and farm care: the pond-side anchor that funds everything else **The company makes scientifically formulated shrimp feed and sells it alongside a range of farm-care products to thousands of coastal farmers, mostly for cash - this is the group’s foundational business and its deepest competitive moat.** - **India’s first mover in Vannamei feed** - Waterbase was the first company in India to introduce feed for Vannamei shrimp and to popularise Vannamei farming, which helped India become one of the world’s top three shrimp-producing nations. It also built India’s first pellet feed mill and was the first to achieve ISO certification for a feed mill. - **A 100,000-tonne mill with a premium brand shelf** - the feed plant has an installed capacity of 1,00,000 metric tonnes per year and runs on fully automated, computer-controlled pelleting lines designed with technology from IDAH, Taiwan. The brand portfolio - Bay White, Vanamax, Tiger Bay XL - is built around species-specific and life-stage-specific formulations (starter, grower, finisher) and enjoys strong recall among India’s shrimp farming community. - **Farm care locks in the farmer** - under the ‘Baylife’ brand, the company sells a suite of antibiotic-free pond products - probiotics, immunity boosters, mineral supplements, and disease-control treatments - that farmers buy alongside feed, deepening the relationship and raising switching costs. - **Cash-and-carry, by design** - the business has deliberately shifted toward cash sales to protect itself from credit risk; by the second quarter of FY25, nearly 80% of feed sales were on a cash basis, up from roughly 25% in early 2021. It sells through a network of over 164 dealers concentrated in coastal Andhra Pradesh, with the top ten customers contributing about 39% of sales. - **R&D that doubles as farmer training** - the company runs its own research ponds and screening labs, has a strategic alliance with the government’s Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, and maintains model shrimp farms in Nellore that serve as live training centres where farmers learn biosecurity and precision feeding techniques. ## 2. Shrimp processing and exports: the dollar earner, restarted after a long pause **The company buys harvested shrimp, freezes and packs it in a modern Nellore plant, and sells it to buyers in North America, Europe, and Asia - a business revived in FY23 after a 15-year hiatus.** - **A renovated plant with global certifications** - the processing facility has an annual capacity of 5,000 metric tonnes and is FDA-listed, EU-approved, and compliant with HACCP, BAP, BRC, and Halal standards. It handles IQF (individually quick-frozen), block-frozen, and cooked formats, using plate freezers and an IQF machine. - **Restarted from scratch in 2022-23** - the plant was comprehensively renovated and recommissioned in the fourth quarter of FY 22-23 after being dormant since 2007, and operated at 40% capacity in its first year back. The company has since undertaken debottlenecking and expansion steps, describing the business as having “ample room for expansion”. - **Traceability is the sales pitch** - because Waterbase also controls the feed and farm-care inputs that go into the ponds, it can offer buyers complete traceability from hatchery to finished pack, which matters to importers in the US (the destination for nearly 48% of Indian shrimp exports), China, and the EU. - **A retail brand on the side** - the company also sells packaged shrimp and crab meat under the ‘Prize Catch’ label in the domestic retail market, though the core of the processing engine is export. ## 3. Hatchery: the seed-stock supplier that completes the circle **The company produces Vannamei shrimp larvae - the starting point of the farming cycle - creating a natural pull-through for its feed and farm-care products.** - **250 million post-larvae capacity** - the hatchery, located in SPSR Nellore district, was commissioned in FY20 and can produce 250 million PL (post-larvae) per year, sold under the ‘Baymax’ brand. - **Repeat orders signal the synergy** - the hatchery registered a high proportion of repeat orders soon after launch, indicating that farmers who buy seed stock tend to come back for the company’s feed and farm-care range. Dependence on imported brood stock is a weakness of the Indian shrimp market. # Group structure and partners **Waterbase sits inside the Karam Chand Thapar (KCT) Group, a diversified conglomerate with roots going back to 1929, and operates through a main listed entity with one wholly-owned subsidiary.** - The company is promoted by Vikramaditya Thapar and his son Varun Aditya Thapar, and its holding company is Nav Srijit Shakti Telangana Private Limited. - It has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Saatatya Vistaar Oorja Bengaluru Private Limited, acquired in March 2020 from a group entity to explore opportunities in the feed and farm-care business. - Related-party transactions occur with Avitech Nutrition Private Limited (purchase of goods), Handy Waterbase India Private Limited (a joint venture under common control), and Karam Chand Thapar & Bros. (Coal Sales) Limited. - The company operates from a 50-acre campus in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, with its corporate office in Chennai, and is listed on the BSE. Its statutory auditor is Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, and it runs on SAP ERP.