Guest Keen Williams is an Indian

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

firm started in

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

in the 1920s by Henry William.

Core business

Its main business was manufacturing nuts and fasteners in collaboration with

GKN GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...

(Guest Keen and Nettlefolds of Birmingham). Later the company went on to become a major manufacturing and engineering enterprise in

and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

(Calcutta). The company's main manufacturing facility is still located at Currie Road in Howrah and its registered office at

Shakespeare Sarani Shakespeare Sarani (earlier Theatre Road) is a street running in the central business district of Kolkata, India, from Park Circus to Chowringhee Road (Birla Planetarium). It was renamed on 24 April 1964 after William Shakespeare, to mark the f ...

in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Company Divisions

The company had four operating divisions: precision pressing division, steel division, fastener division, and engineering and forging division. The Precision pressing division made precision presswork for electrical, automotive, and textile industries stampings and strip would cores for electrical industry. The Steel division made electrically melted alloy steels, rolled and bright bars. The Fasteners division made bolts, nuts, screws and other fasteners. Engineering and forging division produces drop upset and press forgings. In 1991 the name of the company was changed from Guest Keen William Ltd., to GKW Ltd. Later GKW became involved in making points and crossings for Indian Railways, and also in making stampings for motors, etc.

Decline

Guest Keen Williams Limited - Howrah 2011-09-25 00612-00613-00614-00615 Combined

All the divisions of the company were affected due to the industrial slowdown in the capital goods industry in the 1990s and the company continued to lose market due to sluggish demand and was eventually referred to

Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) was a development finance institution under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India, part of the Department of Financial Services of the Ministry of Finance. Set up ...

(BFIR). The company laid off majority of its work force at its Currie Road unit at Howrah and remained locked-out until date. In 2004, GKW Ltd delisted itself from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Mumbai Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange in ...

s. It is currently listed only at the

National Stock Exchange of India National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) is the leading stock exchange under the ownership of various group of domestic and global financial institutions, public and privately owned entities and individuals. It is located in Mumbai, Mah ...

. Currently the company's operations elsewhere in India remain downsized considerably, but it still manufactures fasteners and safety pins from an amazingly antique factory in Bhandup,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

References

Companies based in Howrah Engineering companies of India 1920s establishments in India Manufacturing companies established in the 20th century {{India-company-stub