Cleanpak gives Servicor new life

10/01/2002

By Chris Anderson

CLACKAMAS, OR—CLEANPAK INTERnational Inc. (CPI) has acquired the assets of Servicor Inc., a maker of modular cleanrooms and portable isolation equipment, pumping new life into the veins of an industry mainstay.

"We think Servicor is a strong addition to CPI," says Michael Decker, president and chief executive officer of CPI. "We are always looking to broaden our offerings with respect to the industries we serve and the products we offer, and Servicor helps address those needs."

Servicor was on the brink of disappearing from the industry altogether after the company was placed in Chapter 7 bankruptcy by its previous owner, Veloz Holdings Inc. This occurred just two years after Veloz acquired Servicor. The acquisition by Cleanpak gives Servicor not only a new owner, but also a new lease on life.

Renamed Servicor CPI, the company will rely on Cleanpak to manufacture most of the equipment and components of Servicor's modular cleanrooms, as well as potentially incorporate Cleanpak's air handling systems within Servicor designs, says Chuck Bona, co-founder and operations manager of Servicor CPI.

"There are many synergies between Cleanpak and Servicor," Bona says. "We're in the same industry, they understand what it takes to weather the business cycles and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to re-establish Servicor in the industry."

Decker says he hopes to leverage both Servicor's strong reputation in the industry while building business in a niche that is quite different from its typical large-scale cleanroom projects in the semiconductor industry.

"We felt it would be a logical extension of our products and services and expanded our reach into new markets through their customer base," Decker says. "They are serving the aerospace, hospital and medical device markets and those are markets we are increasingly looking at."

Servicor CPI, which recently had been moving toward outsourcing the bulk of its manufacturing, now needs to look no farther than its parent company for this function.

"We are now able to focus on the design of our products and take advantage of Cleanpak's manufacturing capability to deliver the final product," says Bona.

Employees of the San Carlos-based company now number roughly a dozen focused on sales, design and services. "We have retained people who have been with us for some time, the core engineers, technical sales and service people, so we will be able to focus on being a service and design company," says Bona.

The acquisition of Servicor may not be the end of the changes at CPI, Decker hinted. "We are aggressively looking at our own product offerings, refreshing them in terms of the industries we serve, as well as within the semiconductor industry," says Decker. "Our customers are continuing to reduce the cost of their product, and in order for us to serve them we need to be more efficient in our operations and will be aggressively pursuing that as well."