Company: Gulton
Some History

Gulton, Inc: … A brief history of the company from owner, Om Srivastava

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Gulton, Inc: … A brief history of the company from owner, Om Srivastava



Eighty years ago, Dr. Leslie Gulton and his wife, Edith Gulton founded Gulton, Inc. Located in Metuchen, New Jersey, Gulton manufactured a variety of electronic components and products that included prismatic Nicd battery cells, temperature controllers, cigarette lighters, flashlights and radios … and, eventually thermal printheads. In fact, Gulton developed the first thermal printhead back in 1972 for use by the federal government. That was a very fitting start for the only U.S.-based manufacturer of thermal printheads.

The company grew exponentially and in 1986, Mark IV took control of Gulton in a hostile takeover. The company sold six Gulton divisions to the Danaher Corporation in 1993.

Om Srivastava went to work for Gulton in the Schiller Park area of Illinois back in 1964.He spent 14 years in Chicago leading the engineering function for Temperature Controllers. He was transferred to Warwick, Rhode Island where he spent another 3 and a half years and finally, was promoted to Vice President and General Manager and was moved to New Jersey where he was put in charge of printhead manufacturing.

Back then, the Danaher printhead division was primarily manufacturing printheads for the OEM market. This was not proving to be a lucrative strategy and Danaher was looking for bids to sell the division. Om presented a proposal to Danaher to change courses and manufacture aftermarket product for the thermal printing marketplace. The company didn’t share that vision. Om purchased the division from his employers in 2002 and he’s been at the helm ever since.

Upon taking the lead at Gulton, Om steer the company in a different direction, fulfilling his vision of Gulton as the leading manufacturer of aftermarket thermal printheads. That vision still remains as he consistently seeks to expand Gulton’s reach to more end users and distributors and extend the company’s growth to new markets and industries.

Om’s strategy proved to be successful for the company, as under his leadership, Gulton has grown into the healthy, thriving leader in thermal printhead manufacturing.