This is a marquee year for Vipul Mathur, the Managing Director and CEO of Welspun Corp, who is in his 25th year at the company and a key part of its growth. Over the last few years, Welspun Corp has entered several new businesses and segments after reviewing ground realities.
Having risen through the ranks, 56-year-old Mathur, the winner in the metals and mining category of the Urban Visionary segment in the BT-PWC India’s Best CEOs 2026 list, says the company believes in re-calibrating strategy every three years or so based on industry and business requirements.
“Every two or three years, we do a sort of a strategy workshop. While we keep calibrating every year, broadly, we do a big strategy workshop every three years,” he tells BT.
Welspun Corp is a part of the $5-billion Welspun World. So, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, the company decided to pivot to Welspun 2.0 and expanded its portfolio from just large diameter line pipes, of which it is the largest player globally.
“We said this business is very cyclical in nature, very B2B type of a business, and we have been into it for a long time. It is now time to expand our portfolio,” he recalls, adding this is what led the company to set up a Ductile Iron pipe plant and a steel plant in Anjar, Gujarat. “This helped us increase revenue and bring stability and consistency in our earnings,” he says.
Then, in 2023, the company went back to the drawing board again. “Instead of servicing geographies from one location, you need to be local in those geographies,” Mathur recalls, adding that this was the reason Welspun Corp went to Saudi Arabia and further expanded its footprint in the US.
Second, the company decided to be judicious in capital allocation. “Our core geographies are India, the US, and Saudi Arabia. We will focus only on pipes and these three geographies,” he says. Welspun Corp also decided to prioritise balance sheet management, excellence in execution and customer centricity.
The company’s strong financials reflect its strategies. As on December 31, 2025, it had a consolidated global order book of about Rs 23,600 crore. In FY25, it reported gross sales of Rs 14,011 crore, with an RoE of 29%. Profit after tax was a robust Rs 1,902.28 crore.
At the time of the interaction, Mathur mentioned a tailwind in the oil and gas market, before the recent escalation in West Asia. “The geopolitical disorder is helping in terms of being local and emphasis on oil & gas and water sectors,” he said, adding the company is investing heavily in the US. In Saudi Arabia, the company is investing both in oil and water segments.
Mathur also remains upbeat about the Indian market, although it is a mixed bag, and says that the acquisition of Sintex gives Welspun Corp a pan-India brand as well as a network of distributors, dealers and influencers across the country. India has two components for Welspun—one is to produce and supply in the domestic market and the other is to produce in the country and export; and the company is active in oil as well as water business.
“In the last one or two quarters, domestic supply saw some slowdown due to fund allocation in government projects like Jal Jeevan Mission. But now we are seeing a resurgence. We are anticipating that the subsequent quarters are going to look extremely good,” he says, adding that exports from India remain very strong.
Sintex came as a new opportunity that enabled the company to move to the B2C category and create more value for stakeholders. It acquired the plastic water tank maker in March 2023 for Rs 1,251 crore through the insolvency resolution process.
“The combination of B2B plus B2C gives exponentially high valuation,” says Mathur. Sintex is also being built to have a larger portfolio. While earlier, it was only into water tanks, Welspun Corp is now building multiple product lines under the brand, including pipes, in particular OPVC pipes. For the nine months of FY26, Sintex is expected to have a revenue of about Rs 500 crore, as per the third quarter earnings call.
Analysts too remain upbeat about the acquisition and its value to Welspun Corp. Ashutosh Somani, Executive Director—Metals & Midcaps, JM Financial Institutional Securities, says Sintex gives Welspun Corp a credible domestic growth engine alongside its cyclical line pipe business. “The turnaround is on track with capacity expansion and portfolio broadening underway, but market share recovery and margin normalisation will be key to unlocking value,” he says.
No wonder then that Mathur remains confident about business prospects and believes that the impact of the investments and expansion will start trickling in over the next three to nine months and come into full play by next year.
But not one to rest on these achievements, Mathur says the company needs to focus on two clear issues going forward. One is to leverage the expansions already underway and second is to start planning for the next five years. “We cannot keep our eyes shut for the next three to five years,” he says.
Ask him about his management style and Mathur says with a laugh that it may be better to ask his colleagues. But then he goes on to elaborate that he has a brilliant set of people who are very empowered and run the day-to-day business. But at the same time, Welspun Corp has an extremely robust review and governance mechanism. “This is to ensure we are on top of things, and yet we are not directly involved,” he says, adding that one has to be plugged into the business but also create the flexibility for the business itself to operate on their own.
With so much on his plate, Mathur says while it is difficult at times, they wear multiple hats and know how to switch gears. “This continuous fire in the belly has helped us reach from where we were to where we are today,” he says.
With its eye on the future, Mathur’s fire-in-the-belly attitude is set to serve the company well.
@surabhi_prasad
