Serac blows 50 candles this year

Created in 1969, Serac has in 50 years become an international Group with strong expertise in packaging solutions for food and non-food products in bottles and cups. With its international reach, its knowledge and its local proximity, Serac has been able to adapt to the specificities of its clients’ markets during all these years.

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Serac was created out of an inspired idea

It all started with Jean-Jacques Graffin, engineer from Arts & Métiers[1], who founded on the 2^nd of June 1969 the Serac company. In his parents’ garage, he developed weight filling, a much more precise packaging technology than the ones used at the time as it is insensitive to temperature variations. Three short years later, the company in la Ferté Bernard of the Sarthe department, with its 10 employees, sells its first rotation filling machine for fresh and sterilized milk at a speed of 8,000 bottles per hour. It is the start of their success.

50 years later, the company has become an international Group, expert in food and non-food products with specific knowledge on packaging machines for dairy products (50% of its revenue).

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A pro-active and relevant international actor?

If its headquarters are in la Ferté-Bernard, Serac today has 6 worldwide production sites (3 in France, 1 in Brazil, 1 in the US and 1 in Malaysia) and more than 600 employees. Serac’s international footprint and adaptation to local cultures enables it to propose credible offers without borders. Having teams located in various regions enables proximity with clients and an easiness to exchange. In fine, a knowledge of the different markets, pieces of legislation, cultures and trends which make Serac a pro-active and relevant international actor.

Manufacture of bottles, packaging of cups: recent strategical evolutions

The Group has expanded its offer of products and services as well as strengthened its international presence these past years.?In 2004, the Group acquired Nova in Courville sur Eure near Chartres, specialized in the filling of food products in cups. It is this same company created in 1927 that Jean-Jacques Graffin left 50 years ago to create his own business.

In 2013, the Group added blowing machines of PET bottles to its assets. They are designed and assembled in the Malaysian production site near Kuala Lumpur. The expansion of its offer in primary packaging has helped the company give clients a more multi-function solution “blowing-filling-capping” in one block, more competitive in terms of costs and floor area.

Serac, one of the global leaders in the closed circle of aseptic packaging machines manufacturers, has recently added to its solutions a decontamination technology with no chemical products nor water for bottles and caps treatment prior to filling (decontamination by ionic bombing). These important R&D investments show the Group’s willingness to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Early 2019, Serac got closer to its Middle East customers by opening a customer service office in the UAE.

And it is not stopping, with new challenges arising for the Group. The market trends tend to go towards more automatization to better answer the needs of the factory of the future in a 4.0 industry. Which makes us wonder: what will the packaging machine of tomorrow be like?

1969-2019 : Some Key Dates