SUMMER 2021
16
OEM PROFILE
Serpa’s Next Big Move Grounded by innovation and boosted by a recent acquisition, there’s so much opportunity on the horizon for this end-of-line equipment manufacturer. Natalie Craig, Managing Editor
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t’s a good year for Serpa. The California-based OEM is currently undergoing a transformation as it was recently acquired by ProMach while hitting its fourth year of record growth. OEM Magazine caught up with the end-of-line equipment manufacturer to see what’s been propelling its growth and how the business is adjusting to a huge acquisition. The company is no stranger to growth and innovation, which is what it has been doing since Fernando Serpa, the OEM’s founder, created Serpa Packaging Solutions in 1985 after accumulating enough experience as a service technician to realize that machinery could be easier to operate and more maintenancefriendly. “I worked for a company in an industry that offered manual machines, and I started just breaking the chain. I worked my way up from the bottom and then became a service technician,” Serpa says. “I traveled throughout the country and overseas fixing this company’s machines, which didn’t have the best designs and sometimes equipment was sent out that wasn’t completed. So, I was forced to make parts and re-design equipment on the fly in the field. This experience made me more aware of how a company should operate, which is what motivated me to get out and create Serpa.” But the company isn’t just set on its original mission to create maintenancefriendly machines. Over the last 10 years the OEM has become a systems integrator, catapulting its expansion and landing the company on Inc.’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list. “When I started 12 years ago, we were only in a 30,000 sq.-ft.-building,” says Aaron Metzler, national sales and applications manager at Serpa. “A year later, we broke ground on another 30,000 sq.-ft.-building to expand our machine shop capabilities and accommodate our full line capabilities that we could do in house. We were probably a $10 million company at that point.” Now, Serpa has reached close to $35 million in annual revenue, 20% of which comes from its integrator business. “What really excites me is our full line integrations that we’ve really been tapping into lately,” says Justin Neece, vice president of operations at Serpa,
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5/25/21 10:39 AM