GUBBA COLD STORAGE, SETTING GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR UNPRECEDENTED QUALITY IN THE Cold Storage Industry
GUBBA COLD STORAGE, SETTING GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR UNPRECEDENTED QUALITY IN THE Cold Storage Industry
Setting global standards with 31 years of expertise in preservation of perishables, Gubba Cold Storage meritoriously sits on the title of India's largest cold storage company with one of the biggest cold storages in India holding 1.25cr cubic feet capacity with 17 cold storages in Hyderabad and Aurangabad together.
This 135 years old group dates back to 1879, originally established for the trading of agricultural commodities. Under the guided leadership of the founder Gubba Nagender Rao, it envisaged the need for preserving the agricultural produce to address the fluctuating demand and supply of commodities by storing them in the cold storage facilities. The first Gubba Cold Storage was established in 1987 which was also the first private sector cold storage in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Today the company is being successfully led by Kiran Gubba, CEO and Prashant Gubba, Innovations and Technical Lead of the company serving to innumerable industries which include seed, pharmaceutical, frozen food, agriculture and dairy.
MORE ABOUT THE VISIONARY
Gubba Nagender Rao, Founder and Managing director of 'Gubba Cold Storage' started the first cold storage of Andhra Pradesh. The vision was to address the agricultural wastage by preserving them for long term use and retaining the business value of those products. He is a guiding force in the expansion of the company and a philanthropist who exhibits his responsibility towards the society by contributing to the education of girl child.
SERVICES ON OFFER
The services offered by Gubba Cold Storage are primarily preservation of perishables under controlled temperatures and humidity. The products are preserved in the temperatures ranging from 0 – 15 degrees Celsius and 40%-50% relative humidity and sub-zero temperatures up to minus 22 degrees Celsius as per the product requirement.
They ensure the preservation of seed Germplasm. They are the only private sector germplasm bank in India which preserves the valuable genetic material of seed to generate seeds for sowing and to use at the time of calamities. The seed here can be preserved up to 40 years. Gubba Seed Lab is a state of the art lab for testing seed performance and timely reports with precise testing and they guarantee this with a promise.
Kiran further added, "Developing cold chain is the need of the hour to feed the growing millions of population. With the changing times and evolving needs of the industry, we have equipped our company and team with technical expertise and specialization to address the cold storage needs. Today, Gubba is the place trusted by more than 200 seed companies."
GAINING EDGE OVER COMPETITORS
The problem that Gubba Cold Storage addresses are maintaining intact, the quality of the product stored within their storage. Be it, seed, food, dairy, fresh produce or a life-saving vaccine. Gubba has only been channelling its focus on learning the science of preservation for 32 years now and that is how they evolved with many of India's firsts. Like,
"Research is another important way we function to preserve. Different wings like QA, safety, Rodent & Pest control collectively function to identify the root cause of issues and develop processes" states Kiran.
CORPORATE BUSINESS ETHOS
Gubba is working towards its expansion plans in other cities like Vizag, Vijayawada and Hyderabad. A shift to preserving Pharma and allied products in 3rd party cold storage is the shift that Gubba expects to see.
The advice to the upcoming entrepreneurs from the company's end is exactly what they have pursued in this domain, to focus on setting the goals right primarily and then moving meticulously towards the planning and execution part, given that it requires the mammoth amount of quintessential research. This nature of workflow has landed them the best of clients from the industry like a seed, dairy, food processing units, Pharmaceutical manufacturers and logistic players. Monsanto, Syngenta, UPL, Ganga Kaveri, Brittannia, Amul, Vadilal, Heritage, Aurobindo, Hetero, Piramal etc.
CORE VALUES AND BELIEFS
The core values and beliefs of the group are carrying the company with excellence in services, innovation and maintaining the highest level of safety standards. By the year 2021, they believe that they would be the national leader in seed and Pharma preservation with achieving the status of the best place to work at and also have the international certification for quality and standards. They have and further intend to carry the process with integrity, oneness and transparency within the organizational processes and with the clients.
MAINTAINING SAFETY STANDARDS
Safety of Man, Material and Infrastructure is of crucial importance at Gubba. Over a period of time working with MNCs and safety professionals, they have implemented safety practices to achieve safe working conditions compliant for hassle-free preservation. This started by enrolling the team, vendors and clients about Gubba's vision for safety.
Training the team on safety aspects is an ongoing ritual at Gubba to ensure that team lives breathing safety apart from rigid safety audits, documentation and reports. A number of aspects are well taken care of like loading-unloading safety measure, safety harness, external training program, feet guards for aisle pillars, smoke detectors fixed inside and fire control panels fixed outside the chambers, water sprinkler system installed over the ammonia receiver in plant room to ensure ammonia leaks do not affect the surroundings, mock drill being conducted in plants for preparedness for emergencies, ERT for preparedness for emergencies, rodent control etc.
FEATHERS IN THE CAP
It is imperative to comprehend on the very significant basis that the growth of the company largely depends on the growth of the team and so do the achievements. When you are operating with a common vision in a group of likeminded people, the required results would be achieved and what's needed to be done will automatically grab its pace and happen.
The company and the officials separately have bagged a number awards to their credit, here a few among many:
KEY OFFICIALS AT GUBBA COLD STORAGE
Gubba Kiran, CEO of Gubba Cold Storage has virtually become the face of Gubba and also of the seed and Pharma industries. Setting up India's first private sector dehumidified cold storage for seeds in 1998 has been his brainchild. His core competency in finance has fuelled the company in setting up 17 cold storage plants, 0.7 million cubic feet to one of India's biggest cold storage company with 10 million cubic feet. He is a person who believes in"Service to humanity is service to God" and hence assists in an organization which makes a difference to people's lives.
Gubba Prashanth is the Innovations & Technical lead at Gubba Cold Storage. He heads the technical department and designs the Cold Storages at Gubba. He has designed the first state-of-the-art world-class cold storage for seeds in 2008. Consequently, he has designed more World Class cold storages, most of them innovative in its way, paving the way to Gubba Infra consultancy. Gubba Prashanth has been one of the 13 people from Indian refrigeration Industry selected by United States Trade & Development agency for a reverse Trade Mission to the USA.
FUTURE PLANS
Gubba Cold Storage is looking forward to getting NABL certification for Gubba Seed Lab which is the Apex national-level recognition. There are a lot of other plans in the pipeline for the company but primarily they would like to achieve the utmost level of quality on international standards for the company and the consumers as well.
The company and the key official, all are looking forward and into the plans of expansion to other cities focusing on developing infrastructure and regulations for Pharma preservation.
Kiran wraps with adding, "I learn through interacting with people, listening to what they want. I participate and volunteer in an educational program called landmark worldwide which works on human ontology. My dream is to impact corporate training working with them in their being to achieve the goals of the company."
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