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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.

Spider robots sit atop a conveyor on one of Serpa’s intermittent cartoners.
Spider robots sit atop a conveyor on one of Serpa’s intermittent cartoners.
Kelly Peterson Commercial PhotoVideo, kp-photo.com

It’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.

Photography was taken by Kelly Peterson Commercial PhotoVideo 

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 maintenance-friendly. Screen Shot 2021 06 14 At 12 19 09 Pm

“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.”

Aurelio Lara, a mechanical assembly tech, works on the product bucket conveyor for a cartoner.Aurelio Lara, a mechanical assembly tech, works on the product bucket conveyor for a cartoner.Kelly Peterson Commercial PhotoVideo, kp-photo.comBut the company isn’t just set on its original mission to create maintenance-friendly 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, noting its work in the pharmaceutical and CPG industries. “We just got done with a full bottle line for a top 20 pharmaceutical company, and we took it all the way from the beginning to the end. And with that, we’ve become a lot more efficient, and we’ve been able to take on a lot more of those large lines as an integrator.”

For example, another project Neece mentioned was an integrated line for a multinational personal care corporation, which included three Serpa machines, complex robotics, cameras, and conveyors, all of which had to be deployed within a short lead time.

Both Neece and Metzler have been at Serpa for more than 10 years and have been able to see the company expand its product line and capabilities year after year.

Spider robots sit atop a conveyor on one of Serpa’s intermittent cartoners.Spider robots sit atop a conveyor on one of Serpa’s intermittent cartoners.Kelly Peterson Commercial PhotoVideo, kp-photo.com

Serpa was founded on cartoners, then the company began designing case packers, and, most recently, it has expanded to robotic palletizers and auxiliary equipment like a patented insert feeder, tamper-evident labelers, and checkweighers to complement its core equipment offering.

With its rapid growth and integrator status, the end-of-line equipment manufacturer also caught the attention of ProMach, which acquired Serpa in February.

“I’m turning 60 this year and a lot of companies have been looking at [Serpa Packaging], including ProMach, for about three years,” Serpa says. “I’ve had conversations, but I said, ‘Nah, I’m not going to do it.’ But this time around, the timing was perfect. The main reason I chose ProMach was because I wanted to be good to my people. I didn’t get the company to this point by myself and I have some very loyal people here—they’re like my second family.”

The inside of a Serpa case packer being assembled on the OEM’s floor.The inside of a Serpa case packer being assembled on the OEM’s floor.Kelly Peterson Commercial PhotoVideo, kp-photo.com

What “ProMach Built” means to Serpa

“The addition of Serpa to our Robotics & End of Line portfolio means our customers have access to one of the most robust lineups of end-of-line solutions in the world,” Coburn says. “We’re excited about what Serpa brings to ProMach with their cartoning and end-of-line capabilities.”