Company Background  -  GBI Data & Sorting Systems

GBI was founded in 1967

The company (G B Instruments) was founded in 1967 by two engineers, Lloyd Gordon and Robert Bledsoe. Among its accomplishments, the company produced the first Sensormatic anti-shoplifting system; the first commercially-available photofinishing lab billing system; special-purpose computer system for government/military applications; a golf cart power controller; and a digital burglar alarm system. However, by the end of the 1970's the company decided to concentrate on the billing systems and terminals market, particularly for wholesale photofinishing labs.

In the early 1980's the founders left the company and were replaced by the team of Steve Gordon, president, and Maurice Rochman, then vice president of engineering. The company had grown to 15 employees and was operating from a 10,000 sq. ft. facility in Hollywood, FL

Today

GBI operates under the management team of Maurice Rochman as President, Mark Wolkenfeld as Vice President, and Susana Baldatti as Vice President of Finance. GBI now assembles its systems in our 52,000 sq. ft. facility, located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. A move that was necessary to accommodate the more than 60 engineering, production, sales, customer service, and administration people.

An Employee Owned Company "ESOP"

In 1994, GBI Data and Sorting Systems was purchased by its employees. "All of us now have a stake in the success of our systems," comments Rochman. "We are totally involved throughout the entire product life cycle - from initial specification to post-installation support - in providing our customers with the best solutions for their needs."

GBI's Management Team

The company's management is dedicated to the philosophy of building close relationships with its customers. Before a system is designed, the planned application, including any interfacing with software or equipment from other manufacturers, is carefully reviewed and the performance goals evaluated. Potential future system uses, expansion or changes are studied, so that the system can be designed to accommodate them from the start.

All these products are designed and engineered internally, although many of the actual production operations (i.e. metal fabricators) are performed by local specialized manufacturers; taking advantage of the skills and sophisticated manufacturing capability available in southeast Florida, without boosting "overhead." Products are assembled and completely tested under production conditions at GBI before being shipped to customers, and all non-commercially-available software is written in-house. GBI also manages the installation and on-site testing of its systems.

"Before we even begin designing a system," says Rochman, now GBI's president, "we believe in investing a considerable effort to understand not only the requirements for our system, but also how it contributes to overall plant operation. By combining our extensive software and hardware capabilities with the specific operational knowledge of the plant personnel, we can produce the most cost effective solution."

"Our involvement with each customer is an on-going process," he continues. "We monitor the performance of all our systems, suggest and design enhancements, and support them with service 365/7/24 hours a day."

Mark Wolkenfeld, GBI's vice president, adds that "although sophisticated in design and function, the GBI systems are simple to operate by making generous use of software controls and providing familiar graphical user interfaces. We employ the latest technology in all our systems providing integration flexibility today with a growth path that leads well into the future."

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GBI Data & Sorting Systems • 1143 West Newport Center Drive • Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 USA
954-596-5000 Ext. 231 • Fax 954-596-5015 • E-mail contact: info@gbisorters.com