SA Geolab International Pte Ltd (SA Geolab) was first set up in 1988 by Managing Director, Syed Ahmad as Geolab Services (GLS) in sole proprietorship. Since its inception in 1988, GLS had grown to be a leading soil laboratory company in South East Asia. It was accredited in 1991 and was capable of doing a full range of soil lab testing services that include classification and index tests, strength
tests, volume change tests and strength tests on rock. Its client include Dames & Moore, Fugro, OYO, Asian Geos, TL Geotechnic, Braemer Offshore, GHD Australia, URS, Noble Denton and later Horizon (Dubai), Aramco, GEMS UK and Korean companies such as Dong A, Hyundai and Samsung E & C. It also had a clutch of local Singapore companies that utilize its services for the local infrastructure jobs. The reason for such a varied range of clients was because of its expertise in testing onshore and offshore soil samples. It became known for its high degree of professionalism in executing its testing and the prompt submission of test results. In 2007, the shareholders of GLS sold all their shares to Bluestone Offshore Pte Ltd (Bluestone); parent company of GLS so that GLS could gain new experience in doing deep water soil investigation. GLS was involved in a soil investigation project for Chevron in the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, at water depths ranging from 1200-1850m. GLS managed to pioneer a new technique in handling very soft soils and was involved in the full range of lab tests that include static as well as dynamic testing of soils that include cyclic simple shear, cyclic triaxial and resonant column. After the acquisition of Bluestone, Syed Ahmad decided to form Geolab Technology Pte Ltd (GLT) in April 2011 which subsequently attained the ISO/IEC accreditation in June of the same year. In September 2012, GLT was acquired by SA Geolab.