Measuring growth, GIC aims to reap the benefits
Mumbai-based General Instruments Consortium (GIC) is a leading manufacturer and supplier of mechanical field instruments, specialising in pressure, temperature, level, and flow measurement devices. Founded way back in 1966 by the Kulkarni family, the company, known for its innovation and R&D, supplies high-quality standardised as well as customised mechanical field instrumentation products, uniquely designed to meet critical applications in the onshore and offshore oil and gas sector, petrochemicals, refineries, as well as fertilisers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, paper, power and energy, defence, and other process industries.
Backed by 900 employees and three modern manufacturing facilities (two in Navi Mumbai and one in Goa), the company manufactures a wide range of products – pressure and differential pressure gauges, switches, valves, and fittings for pressure measurement; temperature gauges, switches, various types of temperature sensors and thermowells for temperature measurement; level gauges and switches for level measurement; and orifice assemblies, restriction orifice assemblies, flow nozzles, and venturi tubes for flow measurement.
Field instruments are devices used to measure, control, or monitor variables like pressure, temperature, flow, and level in industrial processes. These instruments are crucial in processing units for ensuring accuracy, reliability, and efficiency of operations. They provide the data needed to monitor and control various parameters, leading to better product quality, reduced waste, and improved safety, spanning multiple industries, including oil and gas, chemical, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
For example, in the oil and gas sector, field instruments are essential for monitoring pressure and flow rates, ensuring safety and regulatory compliance. Similarly, in the pharmaceutical industry, these instruments are used for precise temperature and humidity control during production processes. As regulatory frameworks tighten and industries strive for sustainability, the role of field instruments will only expand, underscoring their importance in maintaining operational integrity across various sectors.
In fact, GIC, which is targeting a topline of Rs500 crore in the next few years, is currently India’s largest exporter in its category. The company has been receiving the highest export award from the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India for the last 25 years, with 50 per cent of its revenue coming from exports. Major export destinations include the Middle East (especially for oil and gas), Europe (supplying to EPC companies), Russia (as an approved Indian supplier), the US, and South East Asia. Going ahead, the company is planning to further expand its presence in Africa (beyond Nigeria) and the US.
With a global customer base of 5,000+ clients, GIC, with a core focus on the oil & gas sector, is today a trusted partner for major oil and gas players, including ADNOC, Shell, TotalEnergies, Saudi Aramco, Qatar Energy, PDO Oman, Petronas Malaysia, and ExxonMobil.
For over six decades, the company has been supplying its products to key industrial sectors – both in the overseas market and India – competing with names like WIKA (Germany) and Baumer (France), as well as several smaller local players. In India, it enjoys preferred vendor status with players like Reliance, ONGC, BPCL, HPCL, MRPL, and BHEL.
GIC has been working closely with prestigious engineering consultants and EPCs across various projects in India and worldwide. These include EIL, Toyo, UHDE, Aker Solutions, Mott McDermott, Tecnimont ICB, Technip, SAIPEM, Jacobs, Petrofac, NPCC, Mott McDermott, Dodsal, Essar, Worley Parsons, L&T, Samsung, and Daewoo.
“Today, we are India’s oldest and largest manufacturer of mechanical field instrumentation products. At GIC, we continue to reinvest in the growth and vitality of our business by providing secure and challenging careers for our employees, long-term relationships with our suppliers, synergistic partnerships with business partners, and our continuous efforts for innovative engineering solutions for our clients worldwide. We are known for our compassion, innovation, and process-oriented engineering product solutions. Our foremost achievement is our loyal and niche clientele worldwide. Our reputation is well defined by our association and preferred vendor status with reputed companies worldwide,” says Sarvadnya Kulkarni, 28, CEO, General Instruments Consortium.
In the last 3 years since Kulkarni joined the family business in 2022, the company has made big strides, doubling its revenue to Rs200 crore. He stepped nto the leadership role after earning degrees from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions – Columbia University, London Business School, and VJTI Mumbai. After starting his career in the US, he made a bold move to return to India and grow his family business. Under his leadership, GIC is currently undergoing a phase of rapid transformation focused on innovation, operational efficiency, and global expansion.
“In the last few years, we have expanded our presence in the overseas markets. While we developed the Russian market, we consciously tried to deepen our footprint in the Middle East. We have significantly enlarged our sales & marketing team. All this was backed by a further expansion of our production base. We are putting up a new unit in Navi Mumbai, even as we are also exploring possibilities for inorganic growth through acquisitions. We are all geared up to take the company to the next phase of growth,” explains Kulkarni.
Genesis
GIC was set up in 1966 by his grandfather, Captain MM Kulkarni, who joined the Indian Army in 1962 as Second Lieutenant in Engineering Services and participated in the Indo-China war of 1962 and the Indo-Pak war of 1965. However, Captain Kulkarni, who was an engineering graduate from the UK, always had an entrepreneurial spirit. After serving his compulsory period in the Indian Army, he founded GIC. In 1969, he established the company’s first unit in Panvel near Mumbai. He began manufacturing operations with a small set-up with one assistant, and his first product was the bimetal thermometer. Bimetal thermometers are tried-and-true instruments for measuring temperature in a wide range of industrial applications, combining low cost and low maintenance with easy installation, use, and calibration.
In 1991, his son Amarendra Kulkarni (father of Sarvadnya Kulkarni and currently the Chairman & Managing Director of the company) took over and embarked on a journey of expansion and modernisation, taking GIC to new heights. An alumnus of the London School of Economics (LSE), the GIC CMD redefined the manufacturing plants and processes by revamping the manufacturing facilities and adopting the latest European technologies, entering into technical collaboration with Gauges Bourdon Ltd, France, for pressure and temperature instruments. This resulted in high-quality products meeting international standards.
GIC carries out its manufacturing activities under two entities – Gauges Bourdon India Pvt Ltd and Minco India Pvt Ltd. Gauges Bourdon India operates under a technical collaboration with Gauges Bourdon (France/UK) for manufacturing pressure gauges and switches, differential pressure gauges and switches, temperature gauges and switches, as well as temperature elements – RTDs, thermocouples, thermowells – and level measurement instruments. From a single manufacturing unit, Gauges Bourdon has successfully expanded its operations across two facilities (a third is under commissioning) in Navi Mumbai.
Minco India is GIC’s manufacturing entity (situated in Goa) for making flow instruments such as orifice plates, restriction plates, assemblies and flanges, venturi tubes, flow nozzles, averaging Pitot tubes, condensate pots, flow straighteners, and other flow-related products. Here, the company designs flow measurement solutions based on various process parameters and applications for different industries. Each product is uniquely designed and engineered as a comprehensive solution to integrate into the client’s processes. The facility is well equipped with the latest world-class machinery, technology, and testing facilities for manufacturing flow orifices ranging from ½” to 72” line sizes. It has developed an in-house flow calibration test bench, which symbolises its expertise and experience in flow product solutions.
While carrying out its manufacturing activities, GIC ensures the implementation of ISO 9001:2015 for quality, ISO 14001:2015 for environment, and OHSAS 45001:2018 for health & safety. Moreover, its high-quality products are complemented by international certifications such as CE, ATEX, etc, and are approved by international agencies like BV, TUV, Lloyd’s, GL, SGS, ABS, DNV, etc. The company has a dedicated R&D team of around 35 people focusing on redesigning, cost optimisation, and higher technology products. GIC also collaborates with institutions like IIT Bombay and VJTI in Mumbai.
“We continue to re-invent ourselves, resulting in our world-class manufacturing facilities with the latest machinery, technology, and quality products offering precision, reliability, and longer product life cycles. Quality and customer satisfaction being the essence of our operations, each manufactured instrument goes through stringent quality checks in line with various international standards.
Our in-house calibration laboratory is NABL certified and well equipped with various testing facilities for routine and special types of tests. This ensures our product quality and helps us to achieve our motto of zero defect. At our R&D centre, our quality experts continue to re-invest our resources in product development, re-design, and re-invention for building next-generation engineering solutions,” states Kulkarni, adding that apart from one or two critical components for pressure instruments (which are imported from Germany), most of the components are manufactured and sourced locally. Manufacturing involves the fabrication and machining of forged blocks, followed by assembly and calibration.
A trusted partner
GIC has been recognised by major international oil and gas companies and is the only Indian company in its product line to be approved by them. The company’s stringent quality standards led to the supply of its products for critical applications, such as submarines of the Indian Navy and Asia’s largest solar project in Rajasthan. GIC also contributed to the prestigious international nuclear fusion project in France.
The Indian mechanical field instrumentation market is currently estimated at Rs2,000 crore. The global market for their specific parameters (pressure, temperature, level, flow) is approximately 30-40 per cent of the total $22 billion instrumentation market, potentially around $10 billion. The market is growing at a CAGR of 6 per cent globally and is expected to reach $30 billion by 2033, while the Indian market is growing at 8.5 per cent.
Mechanical field instrumentation encompasses a wide range of measuring instruments and systems used to monitor and control industrial processes. These instruments are crucial for ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and safety in various sectors like manufacturing, oil & gas, and power. flow, and level in industrial processes.
Several factors are driving the growth of the field instruments market. The rising demand for precision and efficiency in industrial operations is a primary driver. As industries increasingly seek to minimise errors and enhance product quality, the adoption of advanced field instruments becomes imperative. Furthermore, the growth of the oil and gas sector, particularly in emerging economies, is contributing significantly to market expansion.
Additionally, stringent regulatory frameworks related to environmental protection and safety standards are compelling industries to invest in reliable field instruments. Governments are implementing strict regulations requiring the monitoring of emissions and effluents, pushing companies to adopt advanced measurement solutions.
With all these developments in place, GIC, over the years, has emerged as a prominent manufacturer of mechanical field instruments. Though the company has been in existence for over six decades now, the last few years have been quite eventful for it, as it is expanding its market presence with the inclusion of newer markets, as well as deepening its footprint in existing ones.
Backed by third-generation leadership, the company is ramping up its manufacturing capacity to carry forward its recent momentum. It is also setting up a new plant in Navi Mumbai. With processing industries looking to grow unabated in the years ahead, the demand for mechanical field instruments is expected to remain robust, and thus a company like GIC will continue to reap the benefits of the market prospects with its portfolio of innovative and quality products.