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Ska Fabricating: A Foundation for Growth and Innovation

Recent acquisitions and new product developments position the OEM to cater to the expanding direct-to-container digital printing industry as well as emerging beverages and container types beyond beer.

Steve Sherman joined Ska Fabricating as CEO in February 2023.
Steve Sherman joined Ska Fabricating as CEO in February 2023.

Ska Fabricating started in 2012 as a homegrown answer to the gap in container handling equipment available to small and mid-sized craft brewers. Since then, the product portfolio has expanded beyond palletizing and depalletizing for small startups in the aluminum can beverage industry to accommodate a variety of industry segments, including high-volume palletizing—as demonstrated in its most recent announcement, the BAM Bulk Palletizer which can handle speeds up to 1,000 cans per minute (CPM). Another sweet spot for this OEM is its support for the direct-to-container digital printing industry, as well as providing a culture of problem-solving. And leading the effort is the company’s new CEO, Steve Sherman, who joined Ska Fab earlier this year. OEM magazine recently sat down with Steve to talk about what makes the company unique, why Ska Fab joined PMMI, and what’s next for the machine builder.

OEM: Steve, you started your career as an automation engineer and have worked for big companies like IBM, AT&T, and  Nokia. Why did you decide to join Ska Fabricating as CEO?

Sherman: First, I loved the size. I’ve worked in larger organizations that can have heavy bureaucracy and can lose touch with the customer. Ska Fabricating has a global reach, we’re not a startup, but we have the ability to touch customers around the world intimately. I can personally call them. And I give my cell phone number to every customer to call me if they have an issue. Second, the quality and character and culture is off the charts for me. I get to work with good people who want to be here and show up to make something happen, and every person at Ska Fabricating is like this.

OEM: The company has an interesting history. It started as an equipment provider specifically for craft brewers, but then it was acquired in 2021 by two private equity firms. That seems like a very different path for an OEM.

Sherman: I think so. And I think it’s helped build a strong company. The founders [of Ska Fab] are people who set up the development of the platforms, the equipment, and the services we sell. They are operators, they are practitioners, they are not theoretical, they are applied. They are making sure the things that we do are relevant. I believe private equity can help further cement and build on the foundation of the company. The founders had a self-awareness that, for us to take this to the next level, we could use some help, which is what led to the private equity investment. But all of the founders are still on the management board. They want to see it grow. Then, shortly after that we further expanded with the GR-X [Manufacturing] acquisition.

OEM: Was the GR-X Manufacturing acquisition made in 2022 in order to accelerate growth?

Sherman: The strategy was simple, we wanted to find someone who was super compatible [in terms of] how we think about culture and how we develop new products. GR-X had a compatible culture and they even started out on their innovation journey in a similar manner of depalletizing and re-palletizing products. But the most exciting part for me in the chess board of strategy was that Ska Fabricating has a deep vertical intimacy with the aluminum can beverage industry. We’re really good at that. GR-X has a different go-to-market strategy. They went horizontal. They play in steel cans, plastic, glass, and aluminum cans. With this merger we had compatible cultures. And now we have the depth and breadth in this huge global packaging industry.

OEM: Tell me about the recent announcement of the BAM Bulk Palletizer.