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After
about 5 years of working in Northern Indiana, Frank moved to
Indianapolis where he became a minority owner in another awning company.
In January of 1998, Frank hired long time friend Brett Hodges to help
build wholesale awning sales for the company they worked for. Brett
earned an Associates degree in Business from Tallahassee community College
and had spent 13 years in the auto parts business as a counter salesman. |
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By
the end of 1998 Brett and Frank realized that their drive for success in
the industry was fogged by their limited capabilities with the company they
worked for. Brett and Frank felt that the only way they could be
successful in the industry was to start their own business.
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Brett and
Frank being primarily sales focused knew that they were missing a key
ingredient in their management team so they looked to Bob Russell who
had a lot of experience in the industry. Bob joined the team and
in February of 1999. Awning Innovations opened its doors. AI was housed
in a 15000 square foot industrial building on the southeast side of
Indianapolis, IN.
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Over the
next three years the company grew substantially due to team work,
internal development and commitment to customers and employees.
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AI saw the benefits of its customer development efforts and
decided it was time to open another
branch office. Frank and Brett looked south for a prime location and
decided to open another sales and manufacturing
facility in North Carolina. In doing so, AI was able to be more competitive in the
industry and serve the expanding customer base. In April 2001 AI
opened the nine thousand square foot plant in Winston Salem, North
Carolina.
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In June
of 2001, the Indianapolis headquarters took an additional fifteen
thousand square feet next door. This created thirty thousand
square feet of sales and manufacturing area under one roof.
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In May of
2002 AI continued its growth trend and opened AI Innovations of Texas, a
fourteen thousand square feet manufacturing facility in Dallas.
Chris Lewis who had joined AI in March of 2001 earned the opportunity to
expand this office.
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Frank,
Brett and Bob realized that in order to stay at the top of the industry
that they would have to expand their product line. In August of
2004 AI received its first order for sign cabinets.
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Around
the same time, AI purchased the equipment to start doing their own
powder coating and will soon start doing all of their own powder
coating. By January 2005, AI was well on its way to manufacturing
channel letters.
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In April
of 2005, Bob Russell moved once again to open our new manufacturing
facility in Scranton, PA. This facility was opened to create more
ease and opportunities along the northeast United States. The Scranton
facility is approximately 13,000 square feet.
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In 2006, AI Innovations made the decision to close the Dallas and the
Scranton facilities. This was a difficult decision to make, but AI
decided to focus on strengthening the foundation of the remaining
facilities and prepare for future growth. AI has plans to re-open these
facilities in the near future. Currently, AI is still able to be
competitive in freight pricing across the US. |
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Among the
two manufacturing facilities, AI Innovations also has an additional
sales office located in Sachse TX.
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