Dear Shareholders,
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 114th Annual General Meeting and
present the Annual Report of your company. The year under consideration covers the period
April 2022 to March 2023.
I do hope that all of you are safe and well. It is heartening to say with a certain
degree of confidence that the impending threat of the pandemic is now firmly behind us
though this does not in any way preclude the precautions that need to be exercised to
prevent any further exigencies of this nature. Of course, there were challenges of a
different nature like the ongoing war in Ukraine and its continued fallout, the specter of
high inflation, high interest rates and high fuel costs, supply chain blockages, etc which
industry had to overcome last year. The leadership team at WIL has remained focused on its
strategic objective of sustained and profitable growth during the said period and will
continue to be so in the coming years as well. The emphasis has been on growing the order
book in a balanced manner so as to have a judicious mix of orders from both the strategic
and industrial business clusters. As at the end of the said fiscal year, the total order
book of your company stood at a healthy INR 909 Crore – a 36% increase over the
corresponding figure at the start.
Certain all round developments like successful qualification in 4 new missile programs,
delivery of hardware for the human space _ight program, order booking worth INR 250 Crore
plus in the nuclear power plant equipment business, etc have put the strategic business
segment onto a firm footing. The industrial products sector is also seeing an uptick with
sustained growth in the gearbox business and diversification in the crushing and grinding
business via entry in the supply of equipment to the specialty chemicals sector apart from
its core strength in the cement sector. Product development and opening up of the exports
market for short lead time products like centrifugal machines, castings, etc will ensure
balanced revenue streams to complement the company's core strength in executing complex
long lead time projects. Technologies of the future like Green Hydrogen are being
systematically studies and explored. Your company has also embarked on various initiatives
to strengthen structural, process and information/analytics related aspects like "one
plant concept", "business process improvement", "design and technology
group", "supplier relationship management", "corporate branding",
etc. The objective is to create a vibrant, progressive and forward looking organization,
an organization which becomes an aspirational workplace for bright young minds to join and
contribute thereby scaling new heights. Your company continues to be confident and
appreciative of the policy initiatives being taken at various levels in the government as
far as supporting the industrial sector is concerned. Strategic measures like calibrated
interest rate management, technology transfer agreements with foreign partners, production
linked incentives, and continued focus on infrastructure development, etc will ultimately
result in increasing the share of investments in the overall GDP of the nation thereby
indirectly benefitting the core heavy engineering sector in which your company operates.
I am extremely grateful to our customers, the entire WIL team, our Board Members,
shareholders and all well-wishers, who have supported us with their trust and support
through this year. I look forward to continued support & co-operation, as we take on
future new challenges.
Chakor L. Doshi
Chairman