He thrives on machines for food-makers.

Food Engineering Service makes big, expensive machines that separate liquid from solid food, put food into a dry, powder form, and pasteurize food, among other things.

The market for such equipment has pretty much dried up in the U.S., but buyers in Japan, India and Europe are eating it up, said company President Richard Smith.

Because of its increased penetration into these foreign markets, Food Engineering reported revenues of $5 million during 1994, and projects revenues of $8 million this year, Smith said. More than 90 percent of the company's sales are foreign.

In addition, it has been receiving loan guarantees from the California Export Finance Office - a state agency that provides loan guarantees to exporters - since 1988, and most recently received a loan guarantee in May for $550,000, he said. The money is being used to build an egg-drying machine to be sold to a company in India.

Smith said he always wanted to be in the machinery business. Specifically, the dairy equipment business looked interesting to him, and there were job opportunities available in the field when he was in college, he added.

He earned a B.S. in dairy technology and dairy engineering from Ohio State University in 1956, and subsequently got a job with APV plc, a London-based company that makes food processing equipment.

He worked there for seven years, first as a research and development engineer, and then as a sales engineer. There he learned the ins and outs of building dairy equipment, he says.

Eventually he left and founded Food Engineering by himself in 1964 in Nebraska. At that time it was solely a consulting firm.

He moved the company to Thousand Oaks in 1967. Two years later it acquired Dairy Tek Industries in South El Monte, and moved its headquarters there. Dairy Tek installed and serviced dairy plants.

Throughout the 1970s, Food Engineering acted as a sales agent for a Sanovo A/S, a Danish company that sold automatic egg-breaking equipment. Food Engineering helped it establish a market in the U.S., Smith said.

Meanwhile, the food processing business was developing worldwide, and Sanovo helped Food Engineering establish many foreign contacts. When its contract with Sanovo expired, Food Engineering grew to be successful by creating its own product line, and selling its machines to those contacts, he said.

By the early 1980s Food Engineering was manufacturing some of the types of machines it sells today.

It moved to its present Irwindale headquarters in 1988, and now has 60 employees who speak a total of eight different languages.

Machine maker

Food Engineering manufactures four types of machines at its Irwindale headquarters. It started making the first type, a "continuous basket centrifuge" that separates liquids from solids, in the early 1980s. The machine is used, for instance, to separate residual liquid from eggshells after the yolk is removed. The liquid is used in pet food, and the shells are crushed and placed in chicken feed to give chickens calcium, Smith said. These machines cost about $30,000 apiece.

Then in 1986 the company began manufacturing machines that spray-dry liquid foods, such as milk, eggs and juices, into powder form. These machines run $1 million and over apiece, Smith said. In such machines, liquid substance is sprayed into a hot stream of air, which evaporates the moisture.

Next, Food Engineering began in 1990 making rotary dryers to dry solid foods. These cost about $200,000 each.

A fourth type of machine pasteurizes egg products and animal blood plasma, among other things. The egg products are then used as an ingredient in feed for livestock, and the blood is used to make sausage for human consumption, Smith said. These machines cost between $200,000 and $400,000 apiece.

Sales around the globe

However, the U.S. market for many foods all of these machines produce is already mature, and domestic manufacturers already own the necessary equipment, Smith said.

Thus, Food Engineering has been targeting sales in China, india, Russia, Czech Republic, Europe and, most recently, Japan. It is currently making the most progress in India and Japan, he said.

The company gets many of its foreign clients by displaying a booth each year at the International Poultry & Egg Exposition in Atlanta, Smith said.

Food Engineering is an experienced company that makes excellent machines, said Philip Van Bosstraeten, president of Ovobel N.V., an egg-processing company based in Belgium.

Also, Food Engineering's staff helps its customers design plants for the machines and get the machines up and running. They are also easily accessible if they are needed later on, he said.

The company uses its architects and engineers to "crank out plans for a plant within 30 days," Smith said.

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Food Engineering Service

Business: Manufactures food processing equipment Headquarters: Irwindale Year founded: 1964 No. of employees then: one No. of employees now: 60 Revenues in 1994: $5 million Est. revenues in 1995: $8 million