Small Business Stories - AAEQ

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com, I'm Ivy Hartman, we're here at the SEMA Show 2008 in Las Vegas, and with me is Scott Stolberg who is President of AAEQ. Scott, welcome to small business television. Scott Stolberg: Thank you. Ivy Hartman: We are so happy to have you on here because AAEQ has a really unique family business story, but let's starts out by telling us, who is AAEQ and what do you guys do? Scott Stolberg: We are primarily a recycling company; we deal in engines and transmissions for the restoration performance and remanufacturing market. We also manufacture a line of new engine parts, things that our customers wanted that we were having trouble getting on the use side. And we also have some other recycling divisions in addition. Ivy Hartman: And when you say recycling divisions, immediately my ears perk up just because I think quite a time we were so eco conscious, and the automotive industries is getting in on that up slink, talk about starting there, and how that's up to businesses. Scott Stolberg: Remanufacturing is one of the purest forms of recycling, the energy that it saved by reusing a product in its original form is incalculable, and is probably part of the solution to our energy problem. If we did more recycling and remanufacturing, we would be using less energy, and therefore, have less demand for it. Ivy Hartman: I think, why do you think we don't? Scott Stolberg: In some cases people think that it's not cost effective, they think that it's too difficult. There's a lot of things that are happening in the technology side that are allowing things to be easier, the recycle box that comes from your home for years, everybody knew you had to keep things separate, newspaper, cans, plastic, etcetera. There's now techniques that are being used to be able to co-mingle all those things, and then to have with them automatically separate it later on for recycling. So the idea is to make it easier for people to recycle, so that they'll do it more often. Ivy Hartman: Fabulous, okay talk about the business, and this is a second generation small business that started. Scott Stolberg: Well, my father and my uncle started after the War, World War II, and they started out dealing in starters and generators, and eventually our company specialized in engines and transmissions for remanufacturing. And about 25 years ago or so my brother and I came into the business and we were able to take the great foundation that my father and my uncle built, and we turned it into a corporation, and we have a good time everyday. Ivy Hartman: Okay, being a small business station, we want, and our viewers want to know the keys to success that you and your brother feel have helped you. Scott Stolberg: We run our business with a lot of equity; we're not the companies that we're out on Wall Street that were highly leveraged. We learn to not get into businesses or do things that we don't understand. As we've looked to grow and expand our product lines over the years, we made sure we understood what we were doing, and didn't get into things that were going to get us into trouble. Ivy Hartman: Okay, as our business has been in business for 60 years, how has it been multifaceted in the transmission and then in the recycling side of things helped the business? Scott Stolberg: Well, it allows us to know what our revenues are going to be. Sometimes we can't tell you which division is going to make up those revenues, but it just seems that it has allowed us to a much more stable revenue base, and to be more predictable, and allow us to do budgeting and things like that, and have them come to fruition, a little bit more accurately. Ivy Hartman: Okay, and your tenure as President with the company, talk about the role here at SEMA, and what you guys do and how you --? Scott Stolberg: One of our divisions like I said, manufactures new engine parts, because there were certain sonar heads or crankshafts that customers were asking for that we couldn't get them. Well, when we started manufacturing sonar heads, the next thing; the logical step was to start looking at performance sonar heads. And so we are at SEMA today displaying all of our performance products, our performance sonar heads have, as an in and as-cast format, have outperformed all of the competition. And the quality and accuracy of what we're doing directly out of the box, has set a new standard for the industry and what people expect in an as-cast, sonar head. Ivy Hartman: Okay second generation of business AAEQ is in right now, do you think it'll go to a third generation? Scott Stolberg: I think there's a possibility, my daughter has expressed some interest, but she's in college right now, and we're going to wait till she gets done with that before we decide what she wants to do with her life. But I also have a nephew who is in high school, and I think if his father would let him, he would quit today and come to work for us, because he just loves the engine business. And that's how my brother and I learned the business, coming to work with my dad on Saturdays and school breaks, and we really we learned the business from the ground up. Ivy Hartman: This seems like the industry as a whole is a very passion-driven industry talk about. Scott Stolberg: I would say, we are gear heads, I mean, the people that are in this business love cars, there's a part to this that if you don't have that it's not easy to be successful. And it's just a lot of fun, I mean, I love cars. Ivy Hartman: One last question for you, at a show this large where there's over 2000 exhibitors, how do you view as an exhibitor gear up for it, and measure your success and also get ready to be successful, how do you be successful? Scott Stolberg: Well, we started planning months in advance and it involved making sure that the customers knew where to find us, that our prospects got information about what we were going to be, and where we were going to be at the show, to make sure that they got in and saw our products while we are here. We keep our show booths very focused, we actually have a booth here at SEMA that is primarily designed around all of our performance products, where we also have a booth over at the APEC show to display more of our stock replacement parts and things of that nature which tend to be some of the higher volumes in our business, although may be smaller margins, because they're your regular repair parts, as opposed to the performance side. Ivy Hartman: Interesting, anything else we should know about AAEQ? Scott Stolberg: We're one of the original Green companies. Companies talk today about being Green, but we've been helping people be green for 60 years, and we intend to continue to do that. Ivy Hartman: Scott, his gets specific, because you mentioned a little earlier, and I want make sure that our viewers know what it is that you're doing to help companies be Green? Scott Stolberg: Well, we want to make sure that the automotive parts that can't be reused are being reused. And that the parts of the automobile that can't be reused are properly recycled, and that is much as possible, is put back to use without ending up into landfills. Making sure the fluids are properly handled and recycled, because most of them can't be. Making sure that the companies that we are selling our scrap metal to, are in fact being environmentally responsible in making sure that those folks aren't turning around it and polluting. Ivy Hartman: So from being a restoration company to being a manufacturer, you've really changed the phase of the business over 60 years. We wish you much luck in the coming 60 years of the business. What's the web address? Scott Stolberg: www.aaeq.net. Ivy Hartman: And it's very fabulous website, take a trip down memory lane with bunch of old classic cars. Scott Stolberg: Well, the core; the engines are memory lane, there's nothing newer than 1960. Ivy Hartman: Fabulous! That's great for all those restore agent folks out there. Thanks again for being with us Scott, we appreciate you joining us on SBTV.com. Keep it right here, as they continue to bring you all things old and new, manufacture and restore in here at the SEMA Show 2008 in Las Vegas.