Moser Bear nearly missed the hat trick. For the last two years, it had the distinction of being the fastest growing company in the exclusive DQ Top 20 club. Blame it on the weak last quarter which dipped to 24%-it raked in on an average 30% in the previous three years. A change in the export mechanism to Europe shifted some revenues from one quarter to the other. The company changed some large EU-based customers and changed the commercial terms from FOB (free on board) to DDP (deliver duty paid). Under the new mechanism term, revenues were booked only after the consignment has reached the warehouse and not as soon as the consignment is shipped out. According to the company, they want a clear paper trail in case they win the anti-subsidy case against the EU. According to DQ estimates, Moser Baer's bottomline will go up by over Rs 50 crore, if this happens. Nevertheless, the Indian hardware exporter continued to grow faster than the Indian software companies.

The year saw Moser Baer doubling its production capacity to two billion units and is now the third largest optical media manufacturer in the world. As per analysts, in terms of production costs, Moser Baer is about 20% lower than its nearest competitor, and can sustain itself better in the highly commoditized optical media market. Its net margins are similar if not better than most software companies. No wonder the company is the most profitable and the only profitable company in the last financial year among the top five manufacturers in the world.