The 75-year-old giant behind 85 million filters a year grew its topline, quietly lost margin, and 16x-ed its cash — all in one go. Here's the untangle.
Every truck, tractor, two-wheeler, and car engine on an Indian road needs something to stop dirt from chewing it up from the inside. That something is a filter — oil, air, fuel, hydraulic — and there's a very good chance it came from Elofic Industries.
A few things worth knowing before we hit the numbers:
Founded in 1951, now India's largest filter manufacturer, exporter, and OEM supplier
Makes ~85 million filters a year across 6 plants in Faridabad, Nalagarh & Hosur
Supplies giants like Tata Motors, Royal Enfield, GM, Maruti, Kohler, ACE — plus a huge aftermarket
~1,400 distributors, 55,000 dealers in India
Exports are ~45% of revenue — mostly to US OEMs, with warehouses in the US
So this is a real, gritty manufacturing business with a global footprint. Their FY2026 numbers just dropped, and on the surface they look dull. Dig in — genuinely weird. Let's go.
First, the topline. Revenue barely moved:
| Metric (₹ cr) | FY26 | FY25 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue from operations | 459.6 | 450.1 | + 2.1% |
| Other income | 27.4 | 11.5 | + 2.4x |
| Total income | 487.0 | 461.5 | + 5.5% |
The "other income" jump (₹27 cr) is doing quiet heavy lifting — largely treasury/forex-driven, not core filter sales.
Now the part that matters — where the money went:
| Expense (₹ cr) | FY26 | FY25 | % of revenue (FY26) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw materials (steel, media, rubber) | 213.4 | 194.9 | 46.4% |
| Employee benefits | 71.9 | 61.1 | 15.6% |
| Other expenses | 84.7 | 82.3 | 18.4% |
| Depreciation & amortisation | 20.1 | 14.7 | 4.4% |
| Finance costs | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.1% |
| Total expenses | 390.5 | 353.8 | — |
Two costs squeezed the business:
Raw material cost went from 43.3% → 46.4% of revenue. A 3-point swing on a ₹460 cr base is huge — that alone is ~₹14 cr of margin gone.
Employee cost climbed 13.6% → 15.6% of revenue. More people, higher wages, faster than sales grew.
This is the heart of the story. Strip out the accounting noise and look at the actual operating engine:
| Metric (₹ cr) | FY26 | FY25 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| EBITDA (operating) | 89.7 | 111.7 | -19.7% |
| EBITDA margin | 19.5% | 24.8% | -5.3 pts |
| PBT | 96.5 | 107.7 | -10.4% |
| PAT | 76.0 | 77.3 | -1.6% |
| PAT margin | 16.5% | 17.2% | - 0.7 pts |
The tell here: EBITDA fell ~20% but PAT barely moved. How? Two rescuers propped up the bottom line —
That ₹27 cr of "other income" (treasury + forex) cushioned the fall
The effective tax rate dropped from 28.3% → 21.2%, adding back profit lower down
So the reported profit looks stable, but the core operating margin clearly compressed. The filter business itself got less profitable this year — the headline PAT just hides it.
If the P&L is the worry, the balance sheet is the reassurance:
| Metric (₹ cr) | FY26 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets | 473.6 | 384.4 |
| Net fixed assets (PPE) | 74.8 | 69.1 |
| Cash & equivalents | 62.1 | 3.8 |
| Inventories | 78.9 | 67.7 |
| Trade receivables | 68.3 | 84.8 |
| Total equity | 410.3 | 332.8 |
| Total debt | ~3.1 (leases only) | ~3.9 |
The standout facts:
Total assets grew 23% in a single year — funded by equity, not borrowing
Cash exploded from ₹4 cr to ₹62 cr — a ~16x jump
Effectively zero debt — only tiny lease liabilities, no borrowings at all
Debt-to-equity ≈ 0.01. For all practical purposes, this company owes nobody.
ROE cooled from 23.2% → 18.5% — still healthy, but the margin squeeze shows up here too
Notice trade receivables fell from ₹85 cr to ₹68 cr even as sales rose — Elofic collected from customers faster. That's exactly where the cash came from.
Forget profit for a second — this is the truest measure of whether a business is minting money:
| Metric (₹ cr) | FY26 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 78.2 | 46.3 |
| Capex (plants + intangibles) | 119.3 | 17.5 |
| Investing cash flow | (17.1) | (45.5) |
| Financing cash flow | (2.9) | (2.7) |
| Closing cash | 62.1 | 3.8 |
Two big things jump out:
Operating cash flow surged 69% (₹46 cr → ₹78 cr) — driven almost entirely by better working-capital discipline (faster collections, tighter receivables)
Capex ballooned to ₹119 cr — a 7x jump. Elofic is investing hard — new capacity, automation, advanced filter media (nano-fibre, melt-blown, synthetic blends). This isn't a company hunkering down; it's one building for the next leg.
The engine didn't run faster this year — it ran cleaner, and management ploughed the freed-up cash straight back into growth.
The financials make more sense once you know what's happening on the ground:
Exports ~45% of revenue, mostly US OEMs. Overseas revenue jumped from ₹134 cr (FY24) → ₹214 cr (FY25). This is a growth engine — but it also means forex swings matter (hence the fat "other income" line and the OCI translation entries).
OEM vertical grew ~12% in FY25 as Elofic deepened ties with automakers.
Aftermarket is a price war — Elofic holds share via brand + distribution, but it's margin-pressuring. Combined with costlier steel/media, that's your OPM squeeze.
Ambitious target: management is publicly aiming for ₹700 cr sales by FY28 — which, from ₹460 cr today, needs a real acceleration from this year's flat topline.
R&D + patents: DSIR-recognised R&D centre, 9 patents (11 pending). The heavy capex fits the "premiumise the filter media" strategy.
The honest read: Elofic's core filter business had a tough year on profitability — raw materials and wages compressed OPM by over 5 points, and only treasury income and a lower tax rate kept reported PAT flat. But underneath, the company generated more cash than ever, stayed completely debt-free, and poured a record ₹119 cr into new capacity and technology.
Profit tells you how a company looks. Cash tells you how it lives. And margins tell you how it's actually doing.
By that last measure, India's filter king had an off year on the shop floor — but it's spending like a company that fully intends to bounce back.