Gold Seal was set up way back in 1958 for the manufacture and supply of rubber door seals and window channels for OEM fitment on the first Indian cars from Hindustan Motors in Kolkata and Fiat-Premier in Mumbai. Even today, the Gold Group remains one of the three leading companies in the field of EPDM rubber weatherstrips for the latest generation cars like VW, Ford, Nissan, M&M and Tata, among others.
The Gold Seal Group was founded by Mr. H.E. Aga in 1958 along with his wife, Mrs. Daulet H. Aga, where she put up the seed capital of Rs. 10,000 and took the responsibility of finance and administration, while he led manufacturing and marketing responsibilities with special focus on quality and honesty.
After over five decades, the Gold Seal Group is today professionally managed by a team of qualified and experienced men and women under the leadership and direction of five family members, all of whom are also professionally qualified and had corporate experience before joining the family-owned group of companies. The group turnover today exceeds Rs. 100 crores in the auto component field supplying to OEMs, export market and the domestic replacement market.
Over the years, the company grew in size with the auto industry as it was only after the 1990s when MUL changed the Indian auto scenario and when Ford came to India that all the international auto component manufacturers came to set up their global footprint in India.
The Gold Seal Group today consists of three joint venture companies. They are Gold Seal Engg Products, a 100 per cent Aga family-owned company having plants in Mumbai and Daman; GoldSeal – SaarGummi India, a 50:50 JV of Gold Seal Engg Products and SaarGummi of Germany, incorporated in 1995, for the manufacture of EPDM rubber-extruded sealings and weatherstrip profiles for passenger cars, SUVs, MPVs, LCVs and tractors; and Gold Seal Avon Polymers, incorporated in 1997. This is a 45:55 JV of Gold Seal Engg Products and Avon Automotive of the US, now owned by MGI Coutier of France to manufacture EPDM rubber radiator hoses.
Ford was instrumental in bringing both SaarGummi, the world leader in rubber weather strips, and Avon, the global leader in radiator coolant hose, to India to form a JV with the Gold Seal Group for transfer of latest technology and manufacturing products of international design and quality for the first time in India.
The JV companies grew from greenfield sites and augmented the group turnover to Rs. 100 crores by sheer dedication to “Innovation” by the enterprising family members. The team believes that success can be achieved only if each of its members works to attain a corporate vision, mission and goal.
Ford India, at Sanand, today is the global base for the B515 and 562, and to meet Ford’s expansion plans, GoldSeal-SaarGummi India Pvt. Ltd. is putting up a state-of-the-art project at Sanand to meet the global requirements of Ford India Chennai and Sanand plants. Work on the new project has started with the land acquisition of four acres for the building covering 70,000 sq.ft. The project will be operational by August 14 with an installed extrusion capacity of 20 million mtrs. per annum to meet the ever-increasing global demand.
The corporate social responsibility to women was embedded in Gold Seal’s DNA, and from the very beginning there has always been a sense of equality between men and women – equal job role and responsibility, promotion and career development.