History

Powerflo Products Inc. was founded in 1988 as The Progressive Engineering Company. Progressive Engineering began as a manufacturer of rotors for progressing cavity pumps. Soon, the modest shop also manufactured drive shafts, connecting rods, shaft sleeves, and composite blades for rotary-vane vacuum pumps and compressors.

In January of 1994, the company’s founder, Gene Fenton, joined the business full time and changed the name to Powerflo Products. Along with the name change came a new focus on distribution, design, fabrication, overhaul repair, and warehousing of industrial and municipal rotating equipment. This equipment included liquid pumps, electric motors, vacuum pumps, and replacement parts.

Over the decades that followed, Powerflo built strong partnerships with customers, employees, and leading global pump and sealing device manufacturers it is proud to represent today.

In 2026, Gene retired from his role as Powerflo’s president, entrusting his son, Chris Fenton, to take the helm. Although Chris has been in and around the shop and pumps since he was a young boy, he officially began his career with Powerflo in 2004 while attending university as a delivery driver and warehouseman, which quickly led to mechanic work in the pump shop. Following graduation, he entered a sales and pump applications role while working alongside Gene and a growing team of Powerflo professionals. Today, Chris brings a renewed focus on fresh, innovative products while still embracing proven legacy pump designs and his father’s values of consistent support for Powerflo’s customers and employees.

Despite the company’s continuing growth into a larger organization, Powerflo and its employees embody the small machine shop’s nimble, scrappy, and steadfast work ethic. The combination of providing class-leading innovative product solutions, excellent attitudes, and over 100 years of combined industrial and municipal pump experience makes Powerflo Products Inc. California’s top choice for pumps and sealing solutions.