Gujarat man bought $ 6 million company with $ 6,000 in bank

AHMEDABAD: When Rahul Shukla, a director (research) at SS White Technologies (SSWT) Inc., a manufacturing unit founded in 1844 in Piscataway, New Jersey, returned home one day in 1988, he told his wife Meena that the company was up for sale. Worried that it might mean losing the job, she inquired what his plans were. To her astonishment, he said that he intended to buy it.
“The bar was $ 6 million and my wife informed me that we had exactly $ 6,000 in our savings.I told her that we were almost there, with only managing a few zeroes to be rightly placed,” recounts Shukla, 70, now president and CEO of the company where he started off as a quality control inspector.
Of course it was not that easy task as it took Shukla nine months to pursue different banks selling the idea of the company’s future to raise the fund. But today, the high-tech firm specializes in manufacturing flexible rotary shafts, which Shukla proudly mentions, are used in 98% of the aircrafts flying today and even in space projects.
“My native is Wadhwan in Surendranagar district. I got my education in Wadhwan, Bhavnagar and Ahmedabad. I went to the US to pursue MS in industrial engineering in 1971 and started a temporary job at SS White along with other jobs to make ends meet,” recalls Shukla.
Today, the SSWT has manufacturing and marketing facilities in the US, the UK and India. Shukla says that soon after taking over, his thrust was on innovation and technology. “We changed the overall portfolio and invested in the new-age research due to which today most of the aircrafts use the SSWT manufactured thrust-reversal system which is used during landing,” he explains.
It is his Gujarati dream that sets him apart. “We were planning on expansion of manufacturing facilities and we had choice between China and India. India was an obvious choice and the plant was set up in Noida in 2008. My father admonished me for the move and said that I must do something for my native. Thus, the same unit—producing rotary shafts and medical devices—was shifted to Surendranagar,” describes Shukla.
Today, the unit in Surendranagar employs 450-plus workers who produce around $ 6 million worth of instruments. One of the eye-catching devices produced in Gujarat is used for power seats in cars in the US and Europe. Shukla says that he has plans to expand the facility in time to come.
“Before being at the place I am, I have worked as a driver, a security guard and a waiter and thus, I know how important every person’s work is. Hence, when our company decided to give $ 1,000 bonus to each and every employee in December 2016, it made news as the industry was then replete with reports of slowdown and layoffs,” says Shukla, who has also penned books of fiction and non-fiction.
Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Sanman Award for 2014 was conferred on him in London.