While SKF India reports steady but margin-pressured growth, NRB Bearings accelerates profit through diversification into aerospace and electrification, highlighting differing approaches in the industrial bearings sector.
SKF India and NRB Bearings delivered sharply different read-outs from the latest earnings season, even though both remain tied to the same broad industrial and automotive demand cycle. The bearings market in India is still heavily influenced by passenger and commercial vehicle output, two- and three-wheeler volumes and industrial spending, but both companies are trying to reduce dependence on the auto cycle by leaning into defence, aerospace, electric-vehicle-agnostic mobility and other industrial uses.
SKF India reported a 27.1% rise in standalone revenue from operations to Rs.587.79 crore in the first quarter of FY27, yet profitability barely moved. EBITDA was almost unchanged at Rs.100.39 crore, while profit before tax rose just 0.6% to Rs.83.78 crore and profit after tax from ongoing operations increased 0.4% to Rs.61.84 crore. The company said demand was broad-based across domestic and export markets for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and two- and three-wheelers, but the figures point to pressure on margins despite faster sales growth.
NRB Bearings, by contrast, showed a much stronger earnings conversion. Consolidated revenue rose 19.2% year on year to Rs.370 crore, while consolidated profit after tax increased 15% to Rs.38 crore. On a standalone basis, sales grew 14.7%, but profit after tax jumped 31.7% and EBITDA climbed 21.7%. Vice chairman and managing director Harshbeena Zaveri told investors that the company’s trailing 12-month profit growth was the highest among its benchmark peers, crediting diversification across automotive and adjacent industrial businesses for the improvement.
That contrast matters because the two companies are pursuing growth in different ways. SKF India has undergone a corporate restructuring into two independently focused entities, which the company says should improve alignment with customers and sharpen strategy by segment. NRB Bearings, meanwhile, is building out a wider mix of businesses that includes aerospace, automotive adjacencies, electrification, mobility applications beyond current vehicle platforms and industrial friction solutions for equipment such as gearboxes and data-centre cooling systems. The company said its industrial segment expanded to 14% of revenue from 11%, and management also highlighted a Sukhoi-30 order for a plain spherical bearing, a product it says only a small number of global manufacturers can produce.
Investors are likely to focus on execution from here. NRB has laid out a Rs.270 crore capital expenditure plan, with Rs.60 crore already spent and another Rs.100 crore ordered or under way, and management has said roughly Rs.100 crore of capex typically supports about Rs.130 crore of additional sales. The company also lifted its lifetime nominated business from Rs.800 crore to Rs.1,100 crore after winning a Make-in-USA order tied to General Motors’ Corvette programme, although it did not give a conversion timetable. SKF India, on the other hand, needs to show that its sales momentum can translate into better margins after a quarter in which revenue rose quickly but profits did not keep pace.
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