Category: Press Release

Cera promoted to president; Condit hired as CFO

HILLIARD, Ohio (Oct. 24, 2019) — VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, is announcing the opening of a sixth office, this time in Mason, Ohio, and changes to the company’s leadership team. The growing company has also recently hired 11 new associates.

VARGO^® has promoted Bart Cera, who joined the company in 2006, to president. Cera will retain the title of chief operating officer, as well. Since he joined the company, Cera has provided strategic financial and operational direction for VARGO^®’s business goals and has been responsible for developing corporate strategies and systems. Prior to joining the company, Cera was the senior vice president, COO and CFO at Emerald Bank, where he successfully charted a de novo bank and was responsible for all operations.

VARGO^® has hired Gary Condit as the company’s chief financial officer, a title Cera held until his promotion. Condit, who has worked as a CPA for almost 40 years, has previously worked with VARGO^® as a consultant. Condit, who owned his own firm — Condit & Associates — from 1986 to 2011, most recently worked as director of assurance services at GBQ Partners LLC from 2011 to 2019.

“The growth our company has achieved in the past decade can be attributed, in part, to Bart’s leadership, and I am looking forward to seeing him excel in his expanded role,” said Mike Vargo, CEO. “When I look back at how we have grown in the past 13 years, let alone since our founding in 1971, it is fulfilling on a personal and professional level. We have achieved so much by providing the best combination of engineering, technology and material handling expertise and customer service to help our clients achieve success.”

The company — with headquarters in Hilliard, Ohio; a Technology Center in Dublin, Ohio; and additional offices in Austin, Texas; Berkeley, Calif.; and the Grand Rapids, Mich., area — is opening an  office at 4680 Parkway Drive, Mason, Ohio, in the Governor’s Pointe Office Park. The Mason office is tentatively set to open in early November.

In addition to the new office location and changes to its leadership team, VARGO^® welcomed 11 other new employees. George Belivanakis and Steve Crawford, both senior project engineers, and Andre DeGiuseppe, project engineer, will work out of the Mason, Ohio, office. In addition, VARGO^®’s other recent hires include: Michael Shannon, implementation and business analyst; Steven Speer, manager of implementation and QA; Christopher Beseda, implementation and business analyst; Keegan Doyle, software support, QA and implementations specialist; Dan Mattson, site manager; Jeffrey Johnson, software engineer; Arianna Bryant, software support, QA and implementations specialist; and Charles Steward, junior systems administrator.

“The addition of the Mason office space and the increase of our staff provides more project engineering bandwidth to support current company growth,” Cera said. “It also enables us to position ourselves to continue adding engineering talent and supporting new business activities.”

The suburban Cincinnati location will expand VARGO^®’s opportunities to attract and retain the brightest talent in southwestern Ohio and capitalize on business development opportunities in the area.

“There is a wealth of talent in the Cincinnati area that is specific to the material handling industry,” Cera said. “In addition, the greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky market is a hotbed for distribution, with numerous e-commerce facilities in the region.”

As logistics has changed and Amazon has raised consumer expectations for order processing time to the door, retailers have felt the pressure to maintain productivity and yet turn orders around within an hour or two of receipt, Cera explained. VARGO^®’s fulfillment solutions, including its leading-edge Warehouse Execution System (WES) software called COFE^® (Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine), have enabled retailers to be successful in a very competitive market.

VARGO^® offers complete fulfillment solutions for e-commerce, retail, wholesale and manufacturing clients. COFE^®, its intelligent software, drives the fulfillment of many global retailers’ distribution centers across the country, including American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21, Gap, Inc., Thirty-One Gifts and several other well-known retail brands. VARGO^® uses its proven, pull-based methodologies to create intelligent solutions for these fulfillment centers and continues to be a leader in its industry by integrating robotics and automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) into its solutions.

Some of the company’s more well-known projects include:

• American Eagle Outfitters Inc.: VARGO^® worked with American Eagle Outfitters Inc., to design the first fully waveless, omnichannel facility in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. Built new from the ground up, the 1-million-square-foot facility is designed to handle e-commerce and store-replenishment orders. As the integrator, VARGO^® managed every aspect of the design and installation of the fulfillment center, implementing the appropriate WES solutions to maximize speed, efficiency and expediency. Since the facility opened in 2014, AEO has continued to invest in its Hazle Township facility by integrating robotics and an automated storage and retrieval system into COFE^® to handle increasing order volumes, maximize floor space and make the most efficient use of labor.
• Gap Inc.: At Gap Inc.’s Gallatin, Tennessee, location, VARGO^® worked quickly to design the fulfillment center and outfit it with VARGO^®’s waveless COFE^® WES. In less than a year from beginning of design, the facility went live in 2017. In 2018, VARGO^® worked with Gap Inc., to add new workflows, and VARGO^® updated the facility with an automated storage and retrieval system. Gap Inc., has since hired VARGO^® to work on facilities elsewhere in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

HILLIARD, Ohio (July 2, 2019) — VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, has hired Vladyslav Sergievich Yuryev as a supply chain business analyst.

Yuryev will serve as a member of the solutions team, and he will provide customer data analysis, financial modeling and will work on the development of pricing and estimation tools for engineering and sales needs.

“Vlad will use his training and expertise in engineering to assist in data analysis to support the systems and software group’s validation of functionality,” said Bart Cera, CFO and COO.

Prior to joining VARGO^®, Yuryev worked for six years at Pentegra Retirement Services while he studied engineering at The Ohio State University. While there, he analyzed procedures and implemented new standard work procedures for processing data.

Yuryev earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering in May 2019 from The Ohio State University. He is a 2012 graduate of Westerville North High School.

A native of Kiev, Ukraine, Yuryev lives in Columbus (ZIP Code 43224).

Industry veteran will work out of Michigan office

HILLIARD, Ohio (May 30, 2019) — VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, has hired James A. Heuker in the area of engineering operations.

In his new role, Heuker’s main responsibilities will include systems implementation, including estimating, engineering, project management and commissioning. He will be based out of VARGO^®’s Michigan office.

“Jim brings decades of knowledge and experience in overseeing the successful implementation of material handling systems, and we are confident that he will quickly become a valued part of the VARGO^® team,” said Bart Cera, CFO and COO.

Heuker brings with him 30 years of engineering experience in the material handling industry. Prior to joining VARGO^®, Heuker worked as a senior installation operations manager at Honeywell Intelligrated, where he managed the estimating, project scheduling and permitting of all systems installation projects. Prior to that, he was a senior project manager at Intelligrated Systems LLC, and a mechanical engineering supervisor at Siemens Dematic Corp.; he also worked for 13 years at DPI Material Handling systems where he held several different positions, ending as director of engineering and project management.

Heuker earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Calvin College.

A native of Grandville, Michigan, Heuker lives in Hudsonville, Michigan. (ZIP Code 49426).

KLX Aerospace Solutions goes live with state-of-the-art warehouse

HILLIARD, Ohio (Jan. 15, 2019) — VARGO^® is proud to announce that a new global distribution center built in Miami, Florida, for KLX Aerospace Solutions has gone live.

VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, designed and engineered the new distribution center.

KLX Aerospace Solutions had previously announced news about a new 700,000-square-foot headquarters site in Miami, which includes the new, automated 400,000-square-foot warehouse dedicated to distribution. With the new facility, KLX has consolidated its warehouse facilities from three buildings to one.

KLX Aerospace Solutions currently markets and distributes more than 1 million catalog items from more than 3,000 manufacturers.

VARGO^® worked with KLX to design, engineer and integrate fulfillment solutions for the facility —including conveyors, sorters and a three-level pick module — to create an efficient, state-of-the-art facility that will enable KLX to serve its customers around the world. VARGO^® is using its Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine (COFE^®) in the facility.

“With this project, COFE^® provides routing and basic warehouse control system functionality, although the facility was designed with the possibility of COFE^®’s functionality increasing as the KLX business continues to grow,” said J. Michael Vargo, president of VARGO^®. COFE^® is capable of sequencing and synchronizing all work resources within a facility — machines, people and processes — enabling a facility to process orders for both efficiency and expediency with one inventory and one workforce.

KLX offers end-to-end services that reduce cost, risk and complexity. The company employs more than 2,600 people in more than 15 countries who work in the military, commercial and business jet space.

In October, Boeing (NYSE:BA) announced that it had acquired KLX Aerospace Solutions, which is a major global provider of aviation parts and services in the aerospace industry. As of February 2019, KLX will be known as Boeing Distribution Services Inc.

 

About KLX Aerospace Solutions

KLX Aerospace Solutions is the world’s leading distributor and value-added service provider of aerospace fasteners and consumables, offering the broadest range of aerospace hardware and consumables and inventory management services worldwide. Beginning February 2019, KLX will be known as Boeing Distribution Services Inc. Learn more at boeingdistribution.com.

About Boeing

Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes and defense, space and security systems. Boeing is also the world leader in combined commercial airlines and government services with customers in more than 150 countries. The company’s products and tailored services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication systems, and performance-based logistics and training. Boeing employs approximately 140,000 people across the United States and in more than 65 countries.

Wells designs and creates representations of VARGO^® projects

HILLIARD, Ohio (Jan. 11, 2019) — VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, has hired Tyler Wells as a system design technician.

In this role, Wells assists in the design and creation of 2-D and 3-D representations of current and future VARGO^® projects.

A veteran, Wells served as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corp, where he led the discipline, training, control, conduct and welfare of a fire team. He was also responsible for the condition, care, economic and effective use of team weapons and equipment.

“Tyler brings a great deal of knowledge to his role, and we are very much looking forward to seeing him excel with us,” said Bart Cera, CFO and COO. “Tyler’s education in mechanical engineering technology coupled with the dedication and work ethic he developed as a U.S. Marine make him an excellent addition to the VARGO^® team.”

A Texas native, Wells graduated from Joshua High School in 2007. He earned an Associate of Applied Science degree in mechanical engineering technology from Columbus State Community College in 2018.

Wells lives in Hilliard, Ohio. (ZIP Code 43026).

Jipping manages internal projects for VARGO^® software development projects

HILLIARD, Ohio (Feb. 7, 2019) — VARGO^®, a leading provider of material-handling systems integration, warehouse execution software and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, has hired Chelsea Jipping as software project manager.

In this role, Jipping manages internal projects for the VARGO^® software development team.

As a veteran project manager, Jipping has experience in launching implementation processes and operating procedures for new e-commerce data migration tools while also onboarding, training and managing the team behind the launch.

“Chelsea brings years of experience in project and product launch management, and we are looking forward to seeing her excel with us,” said Bart Cera, CFO and COO. “Her knowledge of implementation processes and operating procedures will certainly make her an excellent addition to the VARGO^® team.”

A native of Upper Arlington, Ohio, Jipping earned a Bachelor of Arts in French from The Ohio State University in 2010. She holds certifications through ITIL Foundation and holds a yellow belt in Six Sigma.

Jipping lives in Gahanna, Ohio (ZIP Code 43230).