Gel-Pak Becomes Part of Delphon Industries
Hayward, CA, August 26, 2004 - GEL-PAK, a leading supplier of innovative packaging and handling materials, announced today that Gel-Pak and Quik-Pak have reorganized under the umbrella of a new parent company, Delphon Industries, in order to create a platform for future growth. New growth capital was raised in partnership with Sverica International, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.
Gel-Pak products are used in a wide variety of industries that require the proprietary Gel solution for the safe shipping and handling of leading edge technologies. When companies around the world need to transport valuable devices without risk of damage, they rely on products made by Gel-Pak. Sister company Quik-Pak uses its patented Open-Cavity Package technology and complementary assembly services to produce IC prototypes for semiconductor and MEMS manufacturers, and Fabless IC design firms. Quik-Pak can process any plastic package at any time.
"One of the results from our growth and success," comments Delphon CEO Jeanne Beacham, "Is that we created some confusion in the marketplace when GEL-PAK acquired Quik-Pak in 2000." Although both companies primarily serve the backend semiconductor industry, their services and products are quite unique.
With the reorganization of Gel-Pak and Quik-Pak under Delphon, it enables clear branding of each division's products as well as positioning the Corporation for expansion. "Our growth plans include more acquisitions and by positioning Delphon Industries as our platform, it allows us to strategically build the brands of all our separate divisions, now and in the future," according to Beacham.
"I'm very excited about our business opportunities and partnering with Sverica International provides us access to additional capital to execute both acquisitions and organic growth." With the solid and forward thinking leadership of CEO Beacham, combined with the strong financial umbrella of Delphon Industries, Gel-Pak and Quik-Pak are strongly positioned for the future.
More About Gel-Pak...
In 1980, a Hewlett Packard engineer commented to his friend Vic Althouse that there was no safe way to transport the fragile beam-lead diodes he was working with. These devices could not have anything touching the sides or top, so Althouse literally cooked up the first Gel material in his kitchen, put it in a container to safely hold the devices on the backside only, and sold it to HP. This was the humble beginnings of Gel-Pak.
Initially, Althouse thought this would never amount to more than just a small, family run business, but when other manufacturers discovered what HP was using, they began asking for the same Gel-Pak product as well and the company's sales started to grow. For the next decade, Gel-Pak continued developing various specialized uses for its Gel-based products, including sophisticated Vacuum Release trays and other Gel-carrier formats.
By 1994 the company had experienced significant growth and was in need of someone with high-tech management experience, so they hired Jeanne Beacham as VP of Sales and Marketing. At the time, Beacham had over ten years experience in semiconductor equipment and materials (previously with IBM and KLA). Beacham helped to keep the company moving, but in a more structured fashion.
In 1997 Althouse was ready to cash out and sold the company to a group of investors led by Beacham, who then became CEO and President. Her vision for the company included continued aggressive growth – fueled both organically through increasing sales, and through acquisition of other specialty service and materials providers. Beacham has been successful in this mission.
July 2000 saw the acquisition of SPT (renamed Quik-Pak) and their patented Open-Cavity technology. The combination of the Open Cavity package and full turn-key assembly services provide leading semiconductor manufacturers and fabless companies worldwide with a strategic time-to-market advantage for their IC design programs. Specializing in ultra-fast turn-around times, Quik-Pak can work with any plastic package.
This year, in order to create a better platform for financial stability and future growth, Gel-Pak of Hayward, and Quik-Pak, based in San Diego, have become separate divisions of a new parent company, Delphon Industries, located in Hayward, CA. This reorganization will further strengthen Beacham's plans for growth.
Today, Gel-Pak is a recognized market leader delivering a diverse range of products designed for the safe handling and shipping of leading edge technologies worldwide. Offering one-of-a-kind solutions, Gel-Pak products continue to be looked to as the premium choice for protecting valuable devices within a number of industries such as semiconductor, telecom, and medical.
More About Quik-Pak...
In June of 1994, Joe Dlugokecki, an industry veteran in the IC packaging industry, invented and patented the Open Cavity Plastic Package technology. Later that year he founded Silicon Packaging Technology (SPT) and opened the initial facility to support companies such as National Semiconductor, Cypress, and AMI. The SPT technology was embraced by semiconductor design engineers as a strategic advantage to verify new IC designs in a plastic package, thereby reducing time-to-market for new designs.
The Open Cavity process describes the company's unique method for removing the old die (if present) and epoxy from an existing transfer molded plastic IC package, then wire bonding and encapsulating a new die into the exact same package. The assembled units can be left "open" with the die exposed for FIB work, encapsulated, or even remolded and branded for customer samples.
SPT's patented Open-Cavity technology and complementary turn-key assembly services provide a strategic time-to-market advantage for any IC design program. Specializing in ultra-fast turn-around times and excellent service, SPT has experienced wide acceptance throughout the semiconductor industry.
The company was acquired in July 2000 by Gel-Pak and the new division was named Quik-Pak. To support its continuing growth, Quik-Pak relocated to a new, state of the art facility that same year.
Today Quik-Pak offers backgrinding and wafer saw support, dummy package procurement, fine pitch wire bonding, assembled device remolding and branding, and the ability to open ANY existing IC plastic package on the market today. Quik-Pak currently has offices located in San Diego, California and Essex Junction, Vermont. Recently Quik-Pak has been brought under the Delphon umbrella along with its sister division, Gel-Pak.
Quik-Pak General Manager, Dave Hypnarowski, remains extremely upbeat about the future. "We continue to see increasing demand for our services and as apart of Delphon Industries we have the necessary resources to expand our services and maintain our lead role in rapid IC prototyping solutions."
To learn more about these companies, visit the Delphon website: www.delphon.com
Company Contact:
Darby Davis, (510) 576-2220 or darby@gelpak.com
Marketing Contact:
Jennifer Nunes (510) 576-2253 or jnunes@gelpak.com