Solar Industries was built to make the explosives that blast open India’s coal mines. Quietly, its promoter bet that the same chemistry platform could be redirected to defence, and a decade later, that bet has turned a Nagpur explosives maker into one of the picks-and-shovels suppliers of Indian defence. Here is the journey, year by year.
- Founded in 1995 in Nagpur making bulk industrial explosives for coal mining, against entrenched incumbents.
- It built a rare global explosives footprint across Africa, Asia, Turkey and Australia.
- A 2015 pivot into defence, Pinaka rockets, Akash warheads, propellants, munitions, became the growth engine.
- FY25 revenue rose 24% to ₹7,540 crore with defence revenue up over 160%; the stock has compounded over 30x in a decade.
- FY25 Revenue rises 24% to ₹7,540 crore and profit 47% to ₹1,288 crore; defence revenue more than doubles to about ₹1,355 crore, up over 160%, lifting defence to roughly 18% of revenue.
1995 Satyanarayan Nuwal founds Solar Industries in Nagpur, its first product bulk industrial explosives for coal mining, in a market dominated by IDL, ICI and government suppliers.
2001 It wins its first national-scale contract with Coal India.
2006 Solar lists at ₹190 to limited attention.
2010–2015 Aggressive international expansion, explosives assets in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia, gives it a rare global manufacturing footprint.
2015 Diversification into defence begins, on the bet that India will indigenise its ammunition, missile and explosive supply chains.
2019 First Pinaka multi-barrel rocket components are delivered and defence revenue starts contributing.
2022 Akash missile warhead orders arrive, along with bomb fuses, propellants and ammunition.
2023 Drone-launched munitions and precision-guided weapons are added, and international defence exports begin.
2024 Its defence order book builds with multiple Pinaka rocket-ammunition orders, as the international order book crosses $500 million.
2025 The order book crosses ₹16,000 crore across explosives and defence, with ₹3,500 crore of capex committed for new facilities at Nagpur, Bhopal and Hyderabad.
2026 Solar is one of two listed Indian explosives companies, and the only one with meaningful defence revenue; explosives throw off cash while defence drives growth, with the stock up over 30x in a decade.
The pattern is the point
Solar was built as an industrial-explosives company, and its promoter quietly bet that the same chemistry platform could be redirected to defence, a wager that has paid off across a decade. The picks-and-shovels of Indian defence are not the radars or the aircraft; they are the explosives, propellants and warheads that go inside every projectile. Solar makes them, and the cash from mining funds the growth in defence.
