Ace Designers is targeting $1 billion by 2029: T K Ramesh

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Ace Designers is targeting $1 billion by 2029: T K Ramesh

Ace Designers is targeting $1 billion by 2029: T K Ramesh

Articles
Sep 03,25

In this exclusive interview with Rakesh Rao, T K Ramesh, MD, Ace Designers Ltd, speaks about opportunities in India’s manufacturing sector, challenges facing the machine tool industry, and the company’s ambitious growth roadmap

Ace Designers is targeting $1 billion by 2029: T K Ramesh

Ace Designers Ltd, one of India’s most respected names in CNC machine tools, has come a long way since its founding in 1979 as a design consultancy. Today, following a consolidation of its group companies, it stands as a unified machine tool powerhouse with global ambitions. In this exclusive interview with Rakesh Rao, T K Ramesh, Managing Director, Ace Designers Ltd, speaks about opportunities in India’s manufacturing sector, challenges facing the machine tool industry, and the company’s ambitious growth roadmap.

Could you explain the recent merger of Ace group companies and its significance?

Certainly. Until recently, the group comprised three independent companies — Ace Designers, Ace Manufacturing Systems (AMS), and Micromatic Machines. While they were run independently, the ownership structure was common. Over the past two years, we decided to merge the entities into one unified company. The first merger, between AMS and Ace Designers, was completed in October 2023. The second, between Micromatic and Ace Designers, was finalised in March 2025. Now, all three entities operate under a single umbrella: Ace Designers Ltd.

This consolidation allows us to integrate our learning center, service and marketing arms, and manufacturing strengths into a single cohesive organisation. It also strengthens our brand positioning — making Ace Designers the single face of the group to customers, investors, and global partners.

Ace Designers started as a consultancy in 1979 and is now a leading CNC machine tools maker. How do you view this journey?

The company’s origins were quite modest. The founders initially set up Ace Designers as a design consultancy, much like an architect for machines. The idea was to design machines and license these designs to manufacturers. However, in the early years, while we designed machines for well-known Indian manufacturers, none of them reached commercialisation due to lack of collaborations.

By 1982, we decided to manufacture machines ourselves. Our first opportunity came from the automotive sector, and our initial products were special-purpose machines for Indian valve manufacturers. Soon after, we began building CNC lathes, and in the late 1980s, one of our CNC lathes even won the Best Design Award at IMTEX.

The 1990s were a turning point. We realised we needed dedicated focus areas — hence Ace Designers concentrated on CNC turning, while Ace Manufacturing Systems (1992) was created to focus on machining centers. Micromatic Machines was set up as a specialised sales and service company, offering installation, commissioning, warranty, and after-sales support.

This structure allowed us to serve customers comprehensively: not just with machines, but also with training, installation, and after-sales service. Over time, this combination of reliable machines and strong services built tremendous customer trust and fueled our growth. From producing one machine a month in the early 1990s, we gradually scaled to thousands annually. The first 25 years were all about organic growth, internal accruals, and capacity building, closely aligned with the rapid expansion of India’s automotive industry.

Recently, Kotak Alternate Asset Managers invested Rs 12 billion in Ace Designers. How will this accelerate your growth?

Over the last four decades, we have grown largely through internal accruals. Today, Ace Designers commands over 30 per cent of the Indian CNC machine tool market, across lathes, machining centers, and grinders. However, our exports are still modest — around 10–12 per cent of our turnover, with 85–88 per cent from the domestic market.

To truly become a global player, we need to scale our product portfolio, invest in international markets, and acquire new technologies. This requires external funding. The Rs 12 billion investment from Kotak Alternate Asset Managers strengthens our balance sheet, gives us the firepower to expand globally, and prepares us for a potential IPO within the next couple of years.

This capital will be deployed towards new product development, entry into overseas markets, and possibly acquiring technology to accelerate our growth trajectory.

India is pushing to increase manufacturing’s share of GDP and localise supply chains. How do you see Ace Designers contributing to this national goal?

We see ourselves as a capital equipment supplier to multiple industries. For over 45 years, we have built indigenous machine tool technologies without foreign collaborations. Our machines have played a major role in developing the automotive supply chain in India, particularly at the Tier-2 and Tier-3 supplier levels. Many automotive components exported globally are manufactured on Ace machines.

Today, similar opportunities are emerging in electronics, defense, aerospace, EVs, and medical devices. As these industries scale, they will require strong vendor ecosystems, and machines are the backbone of component manufacturing. We believe we are well-positioned to support these sectors with world-class CNC solutions.

At the same time, our products are now mature and competitive enough to serve international markets. Thus, we are focused on both “Make in India for India” and “Make in India for the World.”

Additionally, we see opportunities in skill development. Operating CNC machines requires trained manpower, and we plan to expand training programs in machine operations, maintenance, and programming. This will create a talent pipeline to support the growth of Indian manufacturing.

What are the current challenges for the Indian machine tool industry?

The biggest challenge is scale. If you look at global leaders: China manufactures at enormous volumes, Korea and Japan have large-scale companies, and Europe thrives on innovation with export orientation. India, in contrast, has many small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Other key challenges include:

Innovation & R&D: Breakthrough innovations in machine tools are still limited. Unlike IT, this sector requires heavy investment, long development cycles, and relatively modest returns.
Skill shortages: For nearly two decades, many engineers shifted to IT and electronics, leaving a gap in manufacturing skills. This is now slowly reversing with renewed focus on manufacturing.
Global competitiveness: Indian manufacturers must balance cost, quality, and delivery to compete globally.

Addressing these challenges requires stronger collaboration between government, academia, and industry. Policy support, coupled with industry investment, can create an ecosystem that fosters local innovation and global competitiveness.

And what about global trade challenges — tariffs, regionalization, etc.?

At present, India accounts for less than 1 per cent of the global machine tool market. So the immediate impact of tariff wars on our exports is limited. However, our customers — particularly auto component exporters — are being affected.

Looking ahead, we expect a shift from open globalisation to regionalisation, with blocs like Asia, Europe, and the US forming strong trade alliances and FTAs. For Indian companies like us, this means we may need to establish regional manufacturing bases, build partnerships, and adopt distributed manufacturing strategies to stay competitive.

What technological trends will shape the machine tool industry in the next decade?

Three trends stand out:

Digitization and intelligence: Like cars transforming into computers on wheels, machine tools will increasingly integrate IIoT, sensors, and embedded intelligence. Machines will monitor their own health, track output quality, and provide predictive maintenance alerts.

Automation and connectivity: Machines will not only produce parts but also generate data, enabling connected manufacturing ecosystems with real-time analytics, efficiency monitoring, and adaptive programming.

Machine-as-a-Service (MaaS): We foresee a shift from capital expenditure to operational expenditure models. Instead of buying machines outright, customers may lease equipment and pay based on output. This will transform business models for OEMs like us.

Additionally, we are investing in additive manufacturing (3D printing). At EMO Hannover 2025, we will showcase our additive machine alongside our turning, milling, and grinding solutions. This is an exciting new frontier for us.

Finally, what are your growth plans for Ace Designers?

Our ambition is clear: by 2029 (our 50th year), Ace Designers will be a billion-dollar global machine tool company. This means:

Achieving over 25% year-on-year growth
Scaling production from the current ~8,000 machines annually to 15,000 machines, and
Increasing exports from the current 10% to 20–25% of turnover

We aim to celebrate our 50th year not just as India’s largest machine tool company, but as a globally respected player with strong products, services, and international reach.