ACE Ltd Eyes Doubling Revenue by FY30 with Diversified Play Across Infra, Agri, Exports, Defence

Action Construction Equipment Ltd. (ACE), the Faridabad-headquartered construction and material handling equipment manufacturer, is charting a focused and multi-pronged roadmap to double its revenues to Rs 6,000–6,300 crore by financial year 2030, a senior official told Autocar Professional.

At the core of its strategy is a deliberate pivot to derisk its heavy dependence on the infrastructure sector and expand its footprint in exports, agriculture, and defence—areas seen as key to delivering sustainable, long-term growth.

With a dominant position in the pick-and-carry crane segment where it commands a 63% market share, ACE has consistently grown even amid sectoral headwinds. The company closed 2024-25 with revenues of Rs 3,427 crore, up from Rs 2,990 crore in 2023-24, defying a broader slowdown in capital expenditure and tepid construction activity.

ACE’s forward-looking strategy combines conservative financial management with calculated risk-taking in new segments. Its aggressive push into backhoe loaders, ambition to double exports, expansion of the defence and agriculture verticals, and capacity augmentation positions the company to meet and potentially exceed its 2029-30 revenue target.

Having grown at a CAGR of approximately 14% over the last few years, the company states it is well-positioned to double revenues every three to four years.

Backhoe Loaders: ACE’s Big Infra Push

A critical piece in ACE’s growth puzzle is its increased focus on backhoe loaders, a segment historically dominated by JCB India. Though it currently holds a modest 3% market share, ACE has overhauled its product offering in the past two years and started making inroads in both domestic and export markets.

“In the backhoe loader segment, we have started inching up. We want to be at 7–10% in the coming years,” said Vyom Agarwal, President, ACE Ltd.

He added that the company is confident of selling at least 4,000 backhoe loaders annually in the medium term.

This growth is backed by continuous product upgrades and export readiness—particularly relevant as India moved to stringent CEV-5 emission norms in January, that align local equipment with global standards.

Exports: Gateway to New Growth

Exports and defence together currently contribute around 8–9% to ACE’s overall revenue, but the company is determined to more than double this share to 15–20% by the end of the decade. Its products are already present in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

“With the introduction of the world’s best emission norms in India, we are confident that Indian-made equipment can now enter more advanced markets,” said Agarwal.

Despite the long gestation period export push is expected to become a major buffer against the volatility in the domestic infrastructure cycle, a risk ACE is proactively mitigating by expanding into multi-sector opportunities.

Building Agriculture and Defence Verticals

ACE’s foray into agriculture is centered around tractors and harvesters. Although the company has a quality product portfolio, network reach and distribution remain constraints.

“The product is good, what we need now is to be aggressive on the network,” said Agarwal. Agriculture currently accounts for about 7% of ACE’s business, but the potential for higher penetration remains significant given the size and scale of the Indian agri-equipment market.

In the defence space, too, gestation period is too long. However, ACE currently services a small portion of its business through lorry loaders, forklift, tractors, terrain forklift, and telehandlers. The company is aiming to strengthen this vertical further, especially in light of the Indian government’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ push and increased allocation towards capital procurement in the defence budget. 

In February, the company secured a Rs 420 crore contract from the Ministry of Defence to supply 1,121 Rough Terrain Forklift Trucks (RTFLTs).

Manufacturing and Capacity Expansion

ACE operates from an integrated industrial park spread across 95–100 acres in Faridabad, with an annual manufacturing capacity of 27,000 units — including 13,500 cranes, 9,000 agriculture machines, 2,700 material handling units, and 1,800 units of construction equipment.

To support future growth, ACE is in the process of acquiring more land around its existing facility and a small parcel in Madhya Pradesh, strategically located near an industrial hub, to expand manufacturing capacity and improve supply chain efficiencies. ACE’s current customer base is well-diversified across manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics, agriculture, and real estate. 

Manufacturing and logistics together account for 45% of end-user demand, followed by infrastructure (35%), real estate (13%) and agriculture (7%). This diverse exposure provides a natural hedge against sectoral downturns, allowing the company to maintain steady performance even when certain sectors underperform.

“We are consciously diversifying, not just product-wise but also customer-wise,” said Agarwal. “That’s how we ensure we’re not overly dependent on any one vertical.”

As India looks to ramp up infrastructure investments and domestic manufacturing under government-led initiatives, ACE appears poised to ride the next wave of growth on firmer, broader ground than ever before.