Our Story
93 years is a long time to love a material. Everything we build today carries the weight of that obsession and the lightness only glass can give.
“We believe glass is the most honest material in architecture. It cannot lie about what it is. Neither can we.”
Nirmeet Kacheria, Founder, NUMAEX
A Family Business
Built on Craft
NUMAEX traces its origin to 1933, when Mr. Chimanlal founded Chimanlal Chhotalal & Co. in Ahmedabad — a picture publishing house that commissioned artworks by leading Indian artists and built a distribution network reaching every major city in the country. One of those works — “Rama and Sita (Sri Ram Sita)”, in the Ravi Varma Press tradition — now sits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.
Glass entered the family story in the 1950s, when photo-frame glass and mirrors began arriving from Belgium. What began as a small detour from cultural commerce has become — three generations later — a family business measured in 250,000 customers, with 95%+ of them returning or referring.
Founded
Generation
Product Lines
93 Years, Six Chapters
A Publishing House, A Network of Artists
Mr. Chimanlal founded Chimanlal Chhotalal & Co. in Ahmedabad — not as a glass company, but as a picture publishing house. He commissioned artworks by leading Indian artists, in the realistic Hindu-deity tradition of the Ravi Varma Press, and built a distribution network that reached every major city in India and select markets globally. One of those prints — “Rama and Sita (Sri Ram Sita)” — is now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.
Glass Enters the Story
Recognising an opportunity ahead of his peers, Mr. Chimanlal began importing glass and mirrors from Belgium for use in photo-frames — the first material pivot of a story that would otherwise have stayed in print. Wholesale glass trading followed, representing Indo-Asahi and Shree Vallabh Glass and serving clientele across Gujarat. The eye for quality that had served art publishing now served glass.
The Processing Pioneer
With the arrival of tempered glass in India, the second generation made their move. Jeetendra and Haresh Kacheria established the first glass processing facility in Ahmedabad under Guardian Glass Industries — becoming a leading supplier to television and bus manufacturers across the country.
Precision Craft, Global Machines
Guardian Glass raised the standard again: importing state-of-the-art beveling and designer-edge glass machinery from the United States and Italy. Techniques that were new to the Indian market. Craft that opened a different kind of clientele.
Three Decades of Innovation
Fully automatic cutting workstations. Printing on glass. A growing presence in the building and premium residential sectors. Over this period, Guardian Glass served more than 250,000 customers — with a repeat purchase and referral rate above 95%. The number reflects not volume, but trust.
The NUMAEX Chapter
Nirmeet Kacheria — third generation, Master’s in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech, and four years with one of the world’s largest private companies in Atlanta — returned to reimagine what the family business could become. Agniforma was founded. A dealer network was built across India. NUMA and SHOJI were established as luxury brands for mirrors and partition systems. The chapter continues.
Our Values
Material Honesty
Glass is glass. We do not try to make it look like something else. Our work celebrates the material's intrinsic qualities — transparency, light play, texture, and structural integrity.
Quiet Luxury
The loudest thing in a room should never be the glass. We design for spaces where everything is considered and nothing is unnecessary. Restraint is the hardest skill to master.
Bespoke by Default
Every project is different. We do not believe in fitting bespoke spaces into standard products. Our team treats every commission as a design problem worthy of a unique solution.
Indian Craft, Global Standard
We are proudly Indian. Our craft draws from centuries of artisanal tradition. Our standards are measured against the finest glass houses in Europe and Japan. Both things are true at once.
Where Glass
Becomes NUMAEX.
A NUMAEX panel passes through dozens of hands before it ever reaches a site. Our 65,000 square-foot workshop in Ahmedabad holds every stage of the process under one roof — kiln, cutting line, edging, tempering, lamination, finishing, and inspection.
This is where three generations of obsession with the material become something you can stand inside.
Sq Ft Workshop
Tempering & Lamination
In-house toughening lines and EVA lamination chambers produce glass rated for structural and safety applications. When a project calls for glass that must carry weight or withstand impact, the numbers are engineered — not approximated.
Precision Cutting & Edging
CNC waterjet and diamond-wheel edging with tolerances measured in tenths of a millimetre. We cut, chamfer and polish every piece in-house — because the edge of a glass panel is the first place a flawed process shows itself.
Kiln-Formed Texturing
Our proprietary kiln process — refined across three generations — shapes glass at the molecular level, producing surfaces no rolling mill can replicate. Each Tactile panel carries the signature of the hand that guided it through the kiln.
Smooth Grit Blasting
The final ten percent of every NUMAEX panel is hand-finished to optical clarity. Machines can bring glass close. Craftspeople bring it all the way. Every surface that leaves our workshop has been inspected by eye, against raking light.
CNC Bending & Fabrication
Every commission is fabricated for its specific site. Nothing is pulled from a standard inventory. Channels, hinges, hardware, mullions — cut, milled and finished to the exact geometry of the room it will inhabit.
In-House Quality Control
Every panel is inspected at every stage — raw blank, post-temper, post-finish, pre-shipment. No exceptions, no sampling. A NUMAEX panel that reaches a site has already been looked at by a dozen pairs of trained eyes.
“A factory can make glass. A workshop makes NUMAEX. The difference is measured in the hours one is willing to spend on progress.”
The Engineering Team, AhmedabadWho Makes NUMAEX
Haresh & Nirmeet Kacheria
DirectorsFifty years of accumulated knowledge. Excitement born every day. NUMAEX builds architectural glass and doors for homes, hotels, and projects that take the long view. Five decades of work on the floor have taught us where doors fail, why glass disappoints, and what an owner notices in year three. We have spent that time building the version that does not. Pivot doors. Sliding partitions. Mirrors. Heavy doors. Each made the way we would specify it for our own house.
Design Team
Product & InteriorsA team of product designers and engineers who understand that product is never just defined by its materials — it is aesthetics, performance, and experience simultaneously.
Craft Team
Manufacturing & QualityArtisans who have spent decades learning how glass responds to heat, pressure, and cutting — and who take enormous pride in precision that only they can see.
Explore Our Projects
93 years of craft expressed across residential, hospitality, and commercial commissions.
Start a Conversation
Tell us about your project. Every NUMAEX engagement begins with listening.