Turnkey at Speed: Accutek’s 80/20 Approach to Custom Builds

For more than three decades, Accutek Packaging Equipment has proven that a family-owned company can innovate aggressively and distribute globally while still operating with the nimble decision-making of a startup. Founded in 1989 by Edward Chocholek and his sons, the Vista, Calif.-based OEM set out to do things differently even from its earliest days. At a time when many custom machine builders crafted equipment one unit at a time, Accutek pursued a hybrid strategy grounded in standardization. That strategy, referred to as its “80% core machine build,” has become one of its strongest competitive advantages. Today, most Accutek machines are built to about 80% completion in advance and stocked as ready-to-customize “cores,” enabling faster lead times, higher repeatability, tighter quality control, and far greater scalability.

“We realized that if we standardized frame sizes, subassemblies, and core structures, we could build 10 or 20 frames at a time instead of making every machine from scratch,” says Drake Chocholek, CIO and Vice President. “It improves speed, quality, and consistency. If you walk through our facility today, you’ll see rows of nearly complete fillers, cappers, and labelers ready for customer-specific adaptation.”

AccutekAccutek now stocks millions of dollars in inventory—raw materials, precision components, and prebuilt subassemblies—allowing the company to deliver custom-configured lines at speed. This approach proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for hand sanitizer filling lines surged, and component availability tightened.

A lifecycle partner

One of Accutek’s most distinctive strengths is its ability to support customers at every stage of their growth. Many businesses begin with Accutek’s benchtop fillers, cappers, or labelers, originally designed for small businesses, labs, and startups. As production needs increase, customers can seamlessly transition to inline automatic equipment and, when volumes surge, to high-speed rotary systems.

According to Drake Chocholek, few competitors offer this full technology spectrum under one roof.

“We started as a benchtop equipment manufacturer, and we still manufacture those systems today,” Chocholek says. “But unlike most benchtop competitors, we also make fully automatic inline machinery and rotary equipment. With Accutek, customers can start small and grow with us—without ever switching manufacturers.”

This ability to scale with customers has resulted in exceptionally high return-business rates, not just for parts and service but for upgraded equipment as organizations expand.Accutek

Beyond fillers, cappers, and labelers, Accutek provides an entire ecosystem of supporting equipment: bottle unscramblers, washers, rinsers, conveyors, inspection/rejection systems, induction sealers, tamper-evident sleevers, turntables, hoppers, tanks, mixers, transfer pumps, valves, and more.

“In terms of the full packaging line—from container handling to filling, capping, labeling, coding, and support systems—I’m not aware of any competitor that covers all of these categories as comprehensively as we do,” says Drake.

The Accutek operations floor with examples of 80% core machine builds stocked in the top right.AccutekThis broad catalog enables Accutek to serve industries ranging from food, beverage, and cosmetics to pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and household chemicals.

Because Accutek manufactures such a wide range of equipment, its team often integrates multiple complete bottling and packaging lines simultaneously. This includes system layout, inter-machine communication, line testing, and full Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs) conducted with customer-provided product whenever possible.

After FAT approval, Accutek’s field service technicians provide installation, operator training, and ongoing support. Their multilingual team helps support customers across North America and internationally.

Family DNA fills multiple locations

Accutek’s focus on innovation traces back to founder Edward Chocholek, who spent years in electronics before turning to mechanical and automation design. Drake Chocholek says that spirit never left the business.

“My dad was always tinkering, always redesigning something to make it simpler or more reliable. That mindset shaped the company,” he says. “And my brother Drew—our COO—carries that same engineering philosophy forward.”

As the company expanded into Texas and Florida, the Chocholeks kept a family presence at each location to maintain culture and ensure continuity across sales, service, and manufacturing operations. Today, Accutek’s 100 employees operate in a collaborative, innovation-driven environment where cross-training, hands-on problem solving, and customer focus are central values.

A path forward

AccutekAccutek’s trajectory reflects a combination of family continuity, long-term thinking, and a willingness to redesign how custom equipment is built. The company’s push toward standardized cores—paired with specialized customization—has enabled high throughput without sacrificing flexibility.

“Our goal is always to stay ahead of customer needs,” Drake Chocholek says. “We want to be ready for what the market demands—before it demands it.”

As CIO, Drake Chocholek is increasingly focused on the role artificial intelligence may play in the future of packaging machinery—from inquiry automation to guided troubleshooting and predictive maintenance.

But he remains cautious.

“There’s an enormous opportunity in private, on-premises AI,” he says. “But putting sensitive engineering data into public cloud tools is a risk. Our long-term goal is to build secure AI tools that truly serve our customers without compromising proprietary designs.”

Accutek’s story offers a compelling blueprint for how family leadership, engineering rigor, and strategic standardization can elevate a packaging OEM into a global competitor built for the next generation.