Bergdahl grows a sister company from distribution roots

Bergdahl Associates Inc. is posting 13 percent sales increases this year as it distributes adhesives and sealants to the aerospace industry.

That's good news for the Reno company, but the steady sales increases are even more important because they provide a platform for Bergdahl's owners to build a manufacturing operation that's growing even more quickly.

RPM Technology, the manufacturing company that shares a facility at 2990 Sutro St. with Bergdahl Associates, is growing at a 35 percent clip.

R. "Parky" May, who owns the companies with his wife, Chris, says he's busy developing new products and licensing technology for others such as a non-toxic lubricant for metal-cutting operations.

"The one thing that we're not short of is opportunity," he says.

RPM Technologies' bread-and-butter product is a line of formulations that remove silicone sealants from metal, ceramics and some plastics.

That's a big deal in aviation repair shops, where silicone sealants traditionally have been scraped by hand. RPM Technology's products break down the chemistry of the sealants so that they can be rinsed away.

The product has been approved by aircraft manufacturers such as Bombardier and Cessna for use in aviation repair, and resourceful aircraft mechanics consistently find new uses for the RPM Technology products around the shop.

The niche has little competition.

"We're in a world onto ourselves," says Parky May.

The continued growth of Bergdahl Associates provides some space for the couple to develop RPM Technologies.

Bergdahl Associates was launched by Ed and Alice Bergdahl, the parents of Chris May, who serves as the company's president.

During its 55-year history which included a move to Reno from the Bay Area in 1978, and construction of its current warehouse and office in 1989 Bergdahl Associates played it conservatively at every turn.

In the early days of the Internet, Parky May learned HTML and hand-coded the Web pages that the company continues to use today. When the company bought land for its Sutro Street facility, it paid cash. When it moved to a computerized accounting system, co-founder Alice Bergdahl gave the final approval only after making sure that the computer's records matched her own hand-written bookkeeping after a year.

The company's big break came in the early 1990s, when Formica contracted with Bergdahl Associates to provide adhesives and sealants. Before Formica moved on after five years, the big contract allowed Bergdahl Associates to save enough money to buy automated filling and packing equipment.

Today, the company is on track to produce annual revenues of more than $3 million distributing more than 200 products such as sealants for aircraft fuel tanks and rapid-cure sealants for aircraft windshields.

"We're niche-y as hell," says Parky May, but aviation maintenance shops and defense contractors around the world know how to find the company on the Internet.

Once they find Bergdahl, the company's eight-person staff works with Chris May to deliver exceptionally high levels of service even helping them find other suppliers if the Reno company can't meet their needs.

"We sell sealants, and we sell them phenomenally well," says Parky May.

The company has consistently posted sales increases of 6 to 8 percent a year for the past decade. Longer operating lives for aircraft which spurs a need for more maintenance products as well as new products developed by RPM and distributed by Bergdahl are accelerating the company's sales this year.