A NEW-FOUND AGGRESSION

Manish Satyanarayan Nuwal is turning Solar Industries from a maker of explosives for mining to a serious player in the promising defence market

- BY KRISHNA GOPALAN

Manish Satyanarayan Nuwal laughs when you ask if playing with fire is fun. His Nagpur-headquartered Solar Industries has been in the business of making explosives for more than two decades.

But that was not how it all started. From humble origins in a small town in Rajasthan to dabbling in various ventures, including ink manufacturing, his father, Satyanarayan Nuwal zeroed in on explosives in the early 1980s, first as a trader. In 1996, he moved into manufacturing bulk and packaged explosives, detonators, detonating chords and initiating systems. The company catered to a host of industries, including mining, infrastructure and construction, through plants housed in India and overseas. Manish joined the company in the mid-nineties.

In 2010, Solar Industries moved into the defence sector for its next phase of growth. Initially, though, growth in defence was hard to come by, and there were a host of apprehensions. During the testing phase, money in the form of capex had already been put in and the manufacturing capacity was in place. However, orders were elusive. “We did the right things and participated in many development programmes. There was always a focus on developing the right product, but it was taking time,” says Nuwal. At that point, a few key decision makers looked at the factory and liked what they saw. “Continue to do good work,” they advised, perhaps an indication that good news was not too far away. That gave him confidence. The effort has paid off as Solar Industries embarks on the next phase of growth.