Baikal Mechanical Answers Hospitals’ Call: “Everything we do, it’s 100% built in Brooklyn”
Baikal Mechanical in Brooklyn, owned by three brothers Rafic, Ruslan, and Rustam Galyanurov, has been in business since 2015. The company specializes in HVAC equipment, focusing on machines that require very little maintenance and custom-designed pieces. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Baikal mechanical has sold and installed over 1,000 air purifier units, mainly to hospitals and other health care facilities.
Originally from Russia, the three immigrated to Brooklyn twenty years ago.
“That’s where we originally moved and we decided to stay. We love Brooklyn,” Rafic said.
The company acts as engineers, mechanics, and contractors, hoping to offer a more comprehensive service than some of their competitors.
“Everything we do, it’s 100% built in Brooklyn. We obviously use some components from different places, but we have a facility here, we build everything, and as a result, the turnaround is much faster. We could meet a lot of the hospitals’ needs for filtration right away because we had this ability,” Rafic told us.
When the pandemic hit, Baikal Mechanical knew they would need to pivot from HVAC in order to keep providing their hospital clients with what they needed. They had thought of designing an air purifier system in the past, but never really had the opportunity until this year. So far, Rafic says they’ve sold over 1,000 of the units all over New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Texas. While their main client group remains hospitals, some private schools have been purchasing units as well.
“If people like us turn down when the hospitals need us then why do they need us at all? So that’s why for us it wasn’t about money, it’s to help our clients. Our clients have been really loyal, [given] consistent business to us, and when this all happened we did the best we could to help them,” Rafic said.
The filtration devices, things like HEPA filters and purifiers, have been recommended by the CDC for businesses. In the early days of the pandemic, Baikal Mechanical struggled to get materials and were paying top dollar for nearly everything. One palate of materials from Germany cost them $18,000.
“It was crazy, we paid a premium for everything just to get anything,” Rafic said.
Baikal works with over thirty hospitals in New York, including Kings County Hospital and The Brooklyn Hospital, and are open to working with restaurants and other businesses as well.
“We’re always here to help the community, help hospitals, schools, anybody as much as we can,” Rafic said.
