SBA 504 financing allows industrial innovator to create or retain 120 jobs
Stephen Pixley knows a thing or two about efficiency.
AutoCrib, the company he started in his garage in 1999, was born from the disorganization Pixley witnessed at the worksites he visited as an industrial distributor. He sought a better way to deliver the tools and supplies workers needed to do their jobs where they were needed, inventing the first industrial vending machine. Then he wrote software to add accountability, allowing manufacturers to see real-time usage data to cost-effectively control and track inventory of thousands of indirect inventory items, from tools to parts.
Pixley said the company’s rapid growth ‑ AutoCrib has sold nearly 20,000 machines worldwide ‑ led to the purchase of a 58,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and warehouse in Tustin, Calif. “We were operating out of three separate buildings, so whatever you needed was always someplace else,” he said. “We’re adding more lines and bought a company, so we needed more space. We’re adding staff so we needed to get everything under one roof. The size and layout of this new facility will enhance our operational efficiencies, production capabilities and allow us to maintain our superior customer service.”
The expansion is expected to allow AutoCrib to add 20 employees to their current staff of around 100.
“This is the second building we’ve purchased using SBA financing,” AutoCrib Founder and CEO Stephen Pixley said. “Whenever you go through the government, you expect it to be a bureaucracy and a pain, but this went smoothly. It was a good experience.”
The new facility is double the size of the previous building AutoCrib was operating from in Santa Ana. “Owning is really the way to go because you get to depreciate the building in a tax-advantaged way,” Pixley said.