AVM Industries works to advance technology

By: Steffani Nolte | SCNOW
Published: March 29, 2010

MARION — AVM Industries LLC is continuing to produce parts for the automotive industry while inventing new products despite the hard economic times.
“The economy is continuing to get better we are seeing it in the automotive, we’re seeing it in the industrial and we’re seeing it in the aftermarket, as well,” Gregory P. Dilloian, AVM president, said.

AT A GLANCE

Name: AVM Industries LLC
Established: 1967
Employees: 240
Address: U.S. 76 East, Marion
President: Gregory P. Dilloian
Owner: Crowne Manufacturing
Products: Automotive supplies
Web site: www.avmind.com

Dilloian said the beginning of the economic recovery has helped AVM rebuild its staff after last year’s layoffs.

“It’s a family here, it really is,” he said. “People work very closely together, we have very few human resource issues and it’s just unlike any other place to work that has a high turnover. Our turnover rate is less than 2 percent.”

The low turnover rate is attributed to employee benefits and to being one of the highest-paying employers in Marion County, Dilloian said.

“We have highly skilled engineers, both design and manufacturing engineers, here. We have a great work force in the Marion County area, unfortunately very high unemployment, so it allows us to have a rather large pool of people to pick from,” he said.

AVM is a private equity company, meaning it is not publicly traded.

“It allows for a lot of entrepreneurism. ... large corporations usually draw a box around you and say, ‘don’t get out of this box, this is your box that you have to live in.’ In an entrepreneurial environment, which is what we very much are, there’s no boxes,” Dilloian said.

This environment is what has enabled AVM to expand its product line. It is working on two new products for Class Eight trucks.

“It employs the technology of a gas spring, but it’s the next generation of the application of our technology to advance our business,” Dilloian said.

Finding new ways to advance business is important for AVM as Dilloian does not predict an economic recovery in the automotive industry anytime soon.

“The automotive industry sold about 17 million cars a year in North America. This past year was somewhere in the range of 10 to 11 million,” he said. “That’s a 60 percent drop — pretty significant. It’s my belief that we’ll never see 17 million again, but we’ll probably start creeping up to somewhere in the low teens, 12 to 13 million, but that’s going to take a number of years.”

Dilloian said AVM is much better off today than it was a year ago and will continue to look for new opportunities and potential business partners.