Kennametal_Kronicle newsletter

INTERNAL NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 05 | APRIL - JUNE 2022

Hi! We are thrilled to share the fifth and final issue of Kronicle for FY22.

Flip through to read an opening note by the global Metal Cutting President, Sanjay Chowbey, an insightful interview with V Rajesh, DGM—Manufacturing, noteworthy achievements by the business units, inspiring customer success stories, as well as glimpses of recently organized events.

Happy reading!

-KIL Marketing Team

What’s Inside KONNECT | Sanjay Chowbey • P. 2

KAPTURE | Events/Happenings • P. 5

KUDOS | Recognition • P. 10

KUSTOMER | Business/Growth • P. 3

KATCH UP | Employee Spotlight • P. 8

KARE | Community Outreach • P. 11

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Kronicle | Issue 05 | April - June 2022

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KONNECT

Sanjay Chowbey President – Metal Cutting Dear India team, I’m pleased to have this opportunity to talk about performance and priorities with you in this issue of the Kronicle.

First, let me reflect briefly on Kennametal India Limited (KIL) and Metal Cutting performance in fiscal year 2022. I want to congratulate KIL for achieving all-time high revenue in FY22 and for exceeding plan for the Metal Cutting portion of the business. Great work from the team!

At the segment level, we delivered improved results vs FY21 but fell short of our FY22 Annual Operating Plan (AOP) while building commercial and operational capabilities for future success. If you missed my full discussion of our results in the last Quarterly Edge call, I encourage you to listen to the replay by clicking the button below.

As we look to drive continuous improvement and growth, our Kennametal India operations are certainly an important

part of our strategy. In my first year with Kennametal, I made it a point to visit our operations in India several times to see our state-of-the art manufacturing facility and to meet with customers, channel partners and Kennametal team members. (If I haven’t yet met you personally, I hope to do so on future visits!) In my interactions, I was impressed with the engagement, continuous improvement and growth mindset the India team brings to serving our business and our customers. It was clear from my discussions with customers that they too recognize the value KIL delivers – and that has resulted in long-term partnerships, sustained business and ongoing growth opportunities.

Fiscal year 2023 is well underway, and I hope you are as energized by the opportunities ahead of us as I am. We must continue to Focus Now on the priorities I’ve shared previously: strategic growth, price, safety, quality, delivery and team development.

I encourage all of you to join our Q1 Quarterly Edge townhall in November to hear directly from me and the extended leadership team about our progress. At the end of the day, we’re here to solve our customers’ challenges. Let’s continue to build operations and teams equipped to do just that.

All the best for another exciting year ahead!

Regards, Sanjay Chowbey President – Metal Cutting

The Results are In Kennametal India Limited concluded the fiscal FY22, ending June 30, 2022, on a buoyant note, clocking an all-time high consolidated income of ₹ 10,001 Mn, while registering a

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INR 8606 Mn Year Ending June 30, 2021

Year Ending June 30, 2022

Kronicle | Issue 05 | April - June 2022

healthy Profit Before Tax (PBT) of ₹ 1,526 Mn, up 55% over last year. The revenue from operations was at ₹ 9,907 Mn, 16% higher than FY21.

Our sound financial performance reflects the resilience and commitment demonstrated by the team in delivering on strategic initiatives despite challenges in the macroeconomic environment, including inflation. During the year, we continued to expand and diversify our customer base across segments. Our steadfast focus on innovation balancing horizontal deployment of proven solutions with new launches, enabled customers to achieve productivity and performance. Our growth initiatives, combined with commercial and operational efficiencies helped us achieve profitable growth in FY22, and we will endeavor to progress in FY23.

-Vijaykrishnan Venkatesan, MD, KIL

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In the fourth quarter of FY22 (ending June 30, 2022), on a consolidated basis, sales grew to ₹ 2,686 mn, 27% higher as compared to the same quarter last fiscal. Profit Before Tax (PBT) was ₹ 382 mn crore, up 31% over the same quarter, last fiscal. Despite inflationary pressures and ongoing geopolitical tensions resulting in surging commodity prices and supply chain constraints, the company continued its growth across the Hard Metals and Machine Tools segments.

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KUSTOMER METAL CUTTING

• The Metal Cutting team recently won a project order worth ₹ 6 Million for boring bars and synchro tapping units from one of the largest tractor manufacturers, reducing customer cycle time by 35%. The MCT-8 (Jamshedpur) team worked very closely with the customer to achieve optimization and productivity improvement for rough boring and tapping operation on machines. © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited

• The MCT-5 (Ahmedabad) and ESG teams secured the first project order in India for critical Firtree machining application, for a highly reputed energy customer.

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KUSTOMER INFRASTRUCTURE • The Infrastructure sales team managed to secure a single largest order of ₹ 42 Million for block mill rolls for an important customer, based on the performance of Kennametal grade. These rolls demand very high resistance to wear and thermal fatigue, and also determine the quality of the wire or rod.

• For our hybrid design mixer blades, the components are designed in such a way that the primary wear area is protected with solid carbide and the secondary wear area is protected with our unique patented Tungsten Carbide Cladding technology to give increased life in challenging environment. The Infrastructure team offered a ferrite ore mixing solution based on this technology to one of the largest companies focused on building a wide spectrum of equipment for large and small-scale manufacturing applications, enabling quality steel output.

WIDMA Please join us in welcoming our newest India Leadership Council member—Rajashekar Venkat. Raj recently joined Kennametal as the head of WIDMA Machining Solutions Group.

He comes with 27 years of experience across industries, leadership roles and functional domains, and the entire team is excited to have him on board to steer the journey towards machineering tomorrow™.

The WIDMA team recently designed, built, and commissioned a state-of-the-art deep hole drilling machine from the SG Series for a general engineering segment customer. This machine is designed for deep hole drilling on shaft component for infrastructure equipment. It incorporates advanced features such as high precision

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Kronicle | Issue 05 | April - June 2022

rigid spindle, hydraulic 3-jaw self-centering chuck and job counter rotation that enable to drill holes of diameter up to 25mm and depth up to 600mm with high accuracy and surface finish. A fully open guard with easily removable panels facilitates ease of maintenance.

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KAPTURE LONG SERVICE AWARDS Continuing the tradition of recognizing employees’ longstanding service to Kennametal, we recently celebrated the 2022 Long Service Awards. At the event, over 100 employees were recognized for serving 10, 20, 25 and 30 years with Kennametal India. This momentous occasion also included their families, in acknowledgment of their significant support in helping the employees achieve these milestones.

Thank you to all the awardees for their steadfast support, enabling the company’s growth and success over the years.

Check out some photos below from the celebration: Presenting a service award to one of the employees

Lamp lighting ceremony in progress on stage to inaugurate the event. Left to right: members of the India Leadership team Vijaykrishnan Venkatesan, Managing Director; Suresh Reddy, General Manager, Finance; Manu Kidave, General Manager, Human Resources; J Prabakar, General Manager, Machining Solutions Group, T Swamy, Director Sales, Infrastructure

Entertainment at the event—a classical Indian dance and music performance © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited

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KAPTURE CII Showcase Our MD, who was recently named as the Vice Chairman of The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Karnataka State Council for FY22 – 23, took part in several activities organized by the trade association that sought to promote initiatives such as community building, policy advocacy, and sustainability.

Delivering a talk on ‘Leadership in a VUCA World’ at IIM, Bangalore

Strategy Planning and Dissemination The Metal Cutting India team recently concluded its 5-year commercial strategic planning and dissemination process In April, the Metal Cutting team organized a collaborative meeting for 170+ team members.

The aim was to disseminate the business strategy developed for FY23, tethered to the ideology of ‘Winning as One’, as well as promote peer bonding.

Our distributors at the event

Strategy dissemination in progress

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The Kennametal India Metal Cutting Team © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited

The Infrastructure team conducted an AOP meeting along similar lines, with the goal of hitting INR 200 Crores in FY23.

Training to EMERGE as Leaders In July 2022, Kennametal India welcomed its first EMERGE class—9 mechanical engineering graduates with varying backgrounds, keen to develop their capabilities and skills to progress in a professional setting.

In this 1-year rotation program, participants will be introduced to many facets of the company’s activities, receive hands-on training, and develop cross-functional expertise as well as leadership skills, all while being mentored by senior executives.

Overall, this experience will surely enable them to accelerate their career development goals and EMERGE as skilled professionals and young leaders.

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KAPTURE Leveraging Diverse Talent for Cross Functional Projects In bid to promote talent development, involve employees in org-level strategic planning and in the process, provide them exposure to areas beyond their regular scope of work, the India Leadership Team identified 5 key themes that are the core to enabling Kennametal India realize its aspirational growth: Identifying new high growth spaces in India, Building Kennametal as a Top-of-the-Mind brand among relevant stakeholders in India, Improving Customer Experience on Delivery and Response Time, Creating New Product Development Process and Ensuring Commercial Launch Success, Effective Talent Management, and Improving Learning and Development Process.

initiative that helped me gain knowledge in new areas and bond with my colleagues from other domains,” said one of the team members.

Cross functional teams were formed for each theme involving close to 30 employees , who worked on these projects for three months and presented their respective detailed plans, which were then handed over to the concerned businesses / functions for implementation.

The final presentations were made to the ILC followed

by Franklin Cardenas, President, Infrastructure during his visit to India. “It was a great experience to be a part of the A couple of the cross-functional teams

KATCH UP In this edition, we’re ‘katching up’ with Rajesh V- DGM, Manufacturing. Read on to find out more!

Rajesh V DGM, Manufacturing

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your educational background, and your professional journey at Kennametal.

I have always been interested in the field of engineering. I studied to be a Mechanical Engineer, and I joined WIDIA in 1995 as a graduate trainee in PU5. Then, after receiving confirmation from the company in 1997, I moved to a role in the grinding department, reporting to Mr. Shivashankar, who was leading the operations at the time. Subsequently, I worked under close to 10 different leaders till

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2007 and I got the opportunity to lead the insert manufacturing plant in 2008. So, I have been with the company for close to 27 years now, and currently hold the position of Deputy General Manager, Manufacturing.

I would like to mention that Mr. Bhaskara played a crucial role in my progress and development at Kennametal, as he guided me closely throughout, and was a great mentor, every step of the way.

2. What does your job entail?

The routine elements are visiting all the departments, ensuring machines are running properly on the shop floor, take stock of operations, gauge performance/ output and inform supervisors if something needs their immediate attention. However, every day can be a surprise! In this role, it is very important to think quickly on your feet, and be ready to deploy Plan B or C if there are some issues in executing Plan A. As I have worked in several roles in the company, my responsibilities have changed accordingly, but putting customers’ needs first, focusing on performance, © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited

KATCH UP planning thoroughly, and doing course correction as and when needed have remained a constant.

3. What do you like the most about working at Kennametal?

For me, it’s the work culture that stands out the most—this is the reason I have continued my professional journey at this company since 1995. I am grateful for the encouragement provided to think out of the box, be a self-starter, and add value.

4. What is the best career lesson you’ve learned so far that you would want to share with the younger lot who are starting out in the company?

I would say—please be patient! There is tremendous scope to learn at Kennametal, work with some of the best minds in the business, and also develop crossfunctional knowledge and expertise. It will be worth your while, gaining invaluable experience overtime rather than seeking new opportunities too frequently.

5. What would you do (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?

Interestingly enough, I may have been Dr. V Rajesh if I had not missed my medical seat by a few marks. I was initially quite interested in the medical field, but when that did not work out as expected, I focused all my attention on pursuing engineering.

6. Do you actively pursue any hobbies? What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy playing cricket a lot and have also participated in quite a few tournaments back in the day, representing WIDIA and Kennametal. I have a keen interest in music as well, especially classical.

I also involve myself in charity work as much as possible—I sponsor education and basic amenities for underprivileged children, and support orphanages as well.

7. What is your motto or personal mantra for the workplace?

Focus on continuously learning and improving yourself, and whatever recognition needs to come your way or whatever growth you aspire for at the workplace will align automatically.

8. If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Actually, I lost my mother a few years ago, so if given the opportunity, I would definitely like to meet her again. She was a tenacious person who raised me and my sister really well, despite enduring a lot of hardships. She has always been a very motivating and inspirational figure in my life.

9. Three words to best describe you: Patient, dedicated, helpful.

10. Coming back to Kennametal, any final thoughts on Kennametal as a brand today and how it can continue to keep up with changing times?

I think Kennametal has really good brand perception among our customers and distributor base, as the brand is synonymous with good, consistent quality.

Emphasis is also placed on innovation, so we are able to provide products that are in demand. There is scope to further our modernization initiatives, going forward and continue on our R&D efforts to keep up with changing times.

Participating in an inter-department cricket tournament in 2001. © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited

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KUDOS We recently got the opportunity to celebrate the consolidated income of a jubilant FY22 with the aspiration of 1K turning into a reality, and our income crossing the INR 1000 crore mark for the first time. This phenomenal result is a reflection of the entire organization’s collective resilience and commitment to deliver on our strategic initiatives, despite a challenging environment. Furthermore, it presents us the opportunity to scale even greater heights in the future.

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KARE Protecting Our Planet: 10,000 Trees Strong!

Our team launched the “Urban Afforestation” project in Bengaluru recently in partnership with United Way India— marking the completion of planting 10,000 tree saplings.

For a period of two years, corporate volunteers from Kennametal along with SayTrees, United Way’s on-ground implementation partner, will take care of these saplings so that they can develop into a natural forest cover, aiding in the restoration of its ecological balance. These afforestation efforts will also raise the ground water table in the vicinity owing to soil and moisture conservation.

“Kennametal’s employee-driven ‘Protecting Our Planet’

(POP) initiative is a cornerstone of our environmental stewardship. Through this program, we have implemented several projects over the years in and around our facility in Bengaluru, aimed at improving the green cover of the city. This urban afforestation project, being driven in conjunction with United Way India, is one such initiative that will positively impact the ecosystem and further strengthen our commitment to bettering the environment.” shared Vijaykrishnan Venkatesan, Managing Director, Kennametal India Limited.

Thank you to our employees for your commitment to the environment and community in which we live and work.

The Kennametal, United Way, and Say Trees teams

Presenting a sapling to Dr. Shanth A. Thimmaiah, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board

Planting a sapling, onsite as per the Miyawaki method

Prioritizing Education In a bid to promote literacy and further our corporate social responsibility goals, our team, in partnership with India Literacy Project donated INR 2,65,000 by way of scholarships to meritorious students at one of the government schools that we support.

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Editorial Team Radha Golla - Marketing | Asish Mukhopadhyay - Finance | Karthik Raman and Rahul Mallara - Metal Cutting | Chandan Kumar - Infrastructure | Sharon Fernz - WIDMA Aditya Jain - Legal | Hemalatha P M - HR | Ravi Prakash - Plant Modernization, Manufacturing | Venugopal Thirumurthy - Quality | Manoharan Antony - EHS

Kennametal India Limited 8/9th Mile, Tumkur Road Bengaluru - 560 073, India.

Tel.: 080 4328 1444 | 2839 4321 | Toll Free: 1800 103 5227 E-mail: k-india-communication@kennametal.com

www.kennametal.com/kennametalindia

Safe Harbor Statement This newsletter is purely for the general information purposes of the employees of Kennametal India Limited (“KIL”) and is aimed at disseminating non-price sensitive information to build better employee engagement and communication. While reasonable efforts have been made to obviate any kind of futuristic statements on the performance of the Company in this newsletter, Kennametal takes no obligation if any part of this newsletter is construed by the reader as futuristic or having any material bearing on the financial and/or the stock prices of KIL, whether or not, by associating the contents of this newsletter to any incidental circumstances/happenings in the market and/or economy. KIL does not guarantee the authenticity of the information provided herein and this newsletter is for information purposes only.

As such, no reliance is to be placed by the reader on any of the contents in this newsletter.

With the possibility of some of the information shared in this newsletter being confidential and the copyrights of this newsletter being vested with KIL, no part of the attached newsletter can be reproduced/ circulated in any form elsewhere, in any manner whatsoever, without written authorizations sanctioned by Ms. Swastika Mukherjee, General Manager - Strategic Marketing and/or Mr. Naveen Chandra, Legal Counsel-Region.

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