sera is a company that was founded in 1970 by Josef Ravnak, a seller of live pet food. Headquarters of the company are in Heinsberg (North-Rhine Westphalia), Germany. At this time, a new process called lyophilization was being introduced and was already highly acclaimed for preserving food animals with optimal retention of their nutrients and vitamins.
Ravnak capitalized on this innovation, and over the years has continually improved sera's product quality. The name sera is a combination of Ravnak's first name, SEpp (nickname of Josef), and his family name, RAvnak.
The early years
During the company's first years the product line was continuously expanded and optimized, and sera vipan flakes, the company's flagship food, was introduced in 1972. The company focus broadened to include the aquarium hobby as a whole and throughout the decade they developed water conditioners, such as sera aqutan and sera morena â€" aquatic plant fertilizers, such as sera florena â€" and aquarium fish medications, such as sera costapur and sera baktopur. The first series of water testing kits were also developed.
Towards the end of the seventies, sera turned to the garden pond sector and developed a complete range of pond care products. Turtle and other reptile products were also being added at this time.
Throughout the eighties, sera continued to raise the company profile by increasing the product lines with innovative and scientifically advanced foods, vitamins, and technological products. During these years the acclaimed sera Bio-Denitrator was launched, which was the first mechanism to actively target the biological breakdown of nitrate in an aquarium.
Today
With more than 200 products in the assortment, a team of scientists at its Heinsberg, Germany headquarters, international product distribution, and subsidiaries in North America, France, Italy, Chile and Japan â€" sera has gained a reputation as one of the leading forces in aquaculture today.
As technology progresses, pressured by the demands of the scientists, sera has been a leader in developing new forms of food such as the flake, tablet, freeze-dried, and granulates that can now meet the individual nutritional requirements and natural feeding habits of the animals it was formulated for.
Specialty foods such as long-term sera holiday tabs, Koi Snacks for hand feeding, and Catfish chips for a nutritional treat based on natural textures are only a few of the novel additions that have combined nutrition with variety.
Along with developments in foods, sera continues to add and refine water conditioners for biological cleaning and algae control, and technical products such as filters, pumps, CO2 units, UV filters, lamps, testing instruments, and accessories.
Education and information are part of sera activity, and company undertakes many seminars, publishes guide book series, sera News periodicals.
See also
- Fish food