Geo Source Emerging As A Formidable Geo Synthetics Company

Technical Textiles

Utkarsha Parikh, Managing Partner at Geo Source and Ganesh Kalidas met for an exclusive interaction that explored the four pillars of the company’s rock-solid foundation which have spurred it to achieve great heights and face the challenges and hurdles that global uncertainty has placed in the way

Utkarsha Parikh, Managing Partner, Geo Source

Be it civil engineering solutions like soil stabilisation or drainage for roads and tunnels or environmental engineering challenges like soil erosion and water conservation works, Geo Source has solutions for a wide range of environmental and civil engineering challenges. Since their inception in 2011, Geo Source has steadily earned and built its name by adapting to the customers’ needs and market demands. In fact, adaptability is a key ingredient of Geo Source’s DNA, which indicates its ability to understand, accept and appreciate customers’ problems and provide precise solutions in a most timely and cost-effective manner.

Initially built around a trading and seasonal business of working in river bank protection works while focusing on supplying various erosion control products like geo bags, GS tubes and rope gabions, Geo Source decided to solidify its presence in the geo synthetics segment in 2016 and today it has become a formidable contender in the market. The basis of Geo Source’s growth is honest and ethical work practice backed by investment in world-class infrastructure, manufacturing of quality products, and providing services and solutions, all of which together have allowed the company to take on tougher challenges and create a loyal customer base.

About four years ago, Geo Source set up its own nonwoven needle punch manufacturing facility. The plant has the capacity to process 2,200 MT of fibre per annum and is running at full capacity. Recently it has enhanced thecapacity to 3,500 MT per annum by taking up on an exclusive basis a manufacturing plant at Nashik in Maharashtra. Apart from being an ISO 9000:2015 company, it has CE certification for supply to Europe and is NTPEP-certified for supply to USA. Today, the company is supplying geo textiles to many key infrastructure projects in 16 countries across the world, mainly USA, Canada and the Middle East.

Also, in 2019, Geo Source invested in a drainage composite line to provide a composite product called GS Drain, which solves major drainage problems in re-wall construction, railway tunnels and landfill sites. Utkarsha Parikh, Managing Partner at Geo Source, says: “We have built the company on the philosophy of four pillars which have become like our guiding and motivating force. It’s like our commandments. No matter what we do, we do not compromise on any of our pillars which are embedded in our DNA. These are ethics, quality, speed and transparency. This is the basis on which our company processes projects and the workforce works.”

He further adds, “These are applicable to all the internal and external resources and interactions – be it our customer, financial institute, vendor, service provider or investor. If even one pillar does not work, there is a failure, which is unacceptable. We are all bound by these four tenets of our company.” Geo Source now has a very diverse presence in the Indian domestic market as well as in exports. Elaborating, Parikh says, “When we set up the nonwoven plant in 2017, our sole idea, apart from catering to the domestic market, was to become a major exporter and make quality geo textile products which would be as good and competitive as any international product.”

“Today we can proudly say that Geo Source’s products are very well-accepted internationally and we are serving many key infrastructure projects across the globe where our products have passed all the necessary approvals and standards. At Geo Source utmost care is taken right from the sourcing of fibre to preparing the fabric to winding and packaging of rolls. We even go a step ahead and take utmost care in ensuring that the containers are stuffed to the maximum possible. Also, as a value-added service, we provide private labeling, packaging and printing to our customers,” Parikh informs.   

Growth Performance

Setting up a nonwoven manufacturing plant has given Geo Source the reputation of being a reliable and a long-term manufacturer that offers a diversified range of value-added products. Talking about the company’s turnover, Parikh states, “Our last financial year closed at Rs 38 crore and this year we are confident of closing at around Rs 60 crore. Our plan by 2024 is to close at Rs 120-130 crore. Our strategy is to bring in more and more value-added products and create key value accounts. Also, this year we have expanded into project execution and have taken up our first major project for slope protection work on a key patch along the Delhi-Mumbai expressway, which is India’s longest expressway.”

“In fact, on the same patch Geo Source is supplying its geo textile as per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ standards and has supplied almost 1 million metres of fabric,” he adds. Parikh shows a certification of appreciation received from his client for this project for being part of a world record in the construction of a concrete pavement in 24 hours. An ace up the sleeve for Geo Source is to opt for both forward and backward integration, wherein the former will comprise value-added products and execution of projects while the latter will include increasing production capacities and investing in machineries to enhance the current production capacity. In alignment with it is a plan to install more nonwoven production lines that will also need installing a small fibre line for its own consumption. The plan is to get it set up by 2024.

The Pandemic Impact

It is interesting to note that the pandemic period saw a surge in nonwovens. Though the government had restrictions on exporting nonwovens, Geo Source not only became operational in April 2020 right after the first lockdown but also could export nonwoven from April. Elaborating, Parikh says, “We saw unprecedented growth last year. Prior to the pandemic, our nonwoven line was still new since we had established it only in 2017. And selling nonwovens is a process which involves getting source approvals and testing while customer confidence also needs to be built up.”

“The first two years were spent in building up our nonwoven market and we received our approvals by December 2019 for both exports and the domestic market. We had readied a good number of customers to buy from us but then the pandemic struck. Yet, we did well last year and today we are running four units of nonwovens – one is owned by us, the second is a tie-up with a company in India, and the remaining two are outsourced manufacturers,” he adds. This year, Geo Source plans to set up one more nonwoven line near Ahmedabad for which the machine will be sourced from Europe.

The capacity will get pushed up from the current 4,000 MT to 4,500 MT and Parikh is confident that the machine will be up and running by the end of this year. Geo Source is about 120 people strong – excluding the seasonal hiring of workforce – and is equipped with an in-house testing and research and development division, a fact the management is proud of because of the highly educated employees who work hard to provide quality products and also develop innovative products in this segment. Says Parikh: “Geo Source is not a one man effort – it’s always Team Geo Source or Team GS which wins.”

Participation at Techextil

Geo Source has been a part of Techtextil shows organised by Messe Frankfurt – twice in Moscow and every time it is held in India. Parikh is all praise for the organisers for they have been “good on the service part and the footfalls are impressive”. Geo Source is happy that they it has been able to cater to the entire Russian market due to participation at the Techtextil exhibition. Today, Geo Source is firing on all cylinders and has proven its worth as a strong contender in the geo synthetics segment of the Indian technical textile industry.                                                           

Geo Source is built on four pillars of ethics, quality, speed, and transparency. We are answerable to all the four tenets of our company. Failing even one is unacceptable.

– Utkarsha Parikh, Managing Partner, Geo Source

We are confident to close   this financial year at around Rs 60 crore. Our plan by 2024 is to close at Rs 120-130 crore. Our strategy is to bring in value-added products and build value customers.

– Utkarsha Parikh

“We shall keep on doing forward and backward integration by investing in newer machinery and technologies and getting into execution of projects.

– Utkarsha Parikh

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