Matthew Sheehan, this year’s 2015 Ground Support Team Leader, started AERO Specialties, in 1987 sitting in his attic with just a $1,000.
“I took my first ad in a FBO Business [the original name of our sister publication, Airport Business] and signed to exhibit at the NBAA trade show all on the same day and didn't really have a way to pay for either one of them in full,” remembers Sheehan, president of his one-stop GSE shop based in Boise, Idaho. “I just put the costs on my credit card, and figured I’d better go sell some stuff.”
HUMBLE START
From that humble start – Matt remembers starting out with a used fuel truck and a tug – AERO Specialties has grown to a powerhouse for all things GSE, in particular for the FBO and MRO markets, and currently counts about 8,000 customers around the world.
“Everything certainly started out small,” he adds, “but it really took that bigger exposure with the advertising and the trade show along with that bigger risk to start growing.”
The company does a little bit of everything these days and does it all very well. AERO provides new, used and refurbished GSE to general and commercial customers throughout the world. AERO also manufactures a line of hybrid GPUs, lavatory, potable water, cleaning and oxygen/nitrogen servicing carts, as well as tow bars and head. Not stopping there, AERO is an authorized distributor of a long list of well-known GSE brand names, such as Eagle Tugs, TLD, Tug Technologies, Unitron, Clyde, Stinar and others. Finally, a secure online store provides customers with GSE and parts whatever the day or time.
Why so diversified?
“In this business, if you sell someone a tow tractor, they aren’t likely to need another from you for 15 more years,” he explains. “That’s a long time. So early on we decided that we needed to build other equipment if I wanted to have our own niche.”
The first thing he built was a lav service cart. “We still build a model of that today,” he says. “We have hundreds and hundreds of those in service.”
From there, he added other products such as tow bars and then started refurbishing equipment.
“We look at AERO being well suited to provide everything an FBO or MRO could need,” Matt adds. “In doing so we constantly figure out what a customer could need and set about providing it. Refurbishing is a natural since for whatever reason – maybe the customer has outgrown that particular piece of GSE or it just doesn’t fit their needs any longer – they need a conduit to help sell that off. So that feeds our used equipment side.”
After an expansion into the equipment side, new and used, the company also diversified to sell the full array of GSE-related parts and accessories.
“Whether you need a flashlight, a marshalling wand, a chock or a brand-new GPU, for that matter,” Matt says, “then that’s what we want to get the customer.”
TEAM BUILDER
Obviously, Matt knows he didn’t accomplish all by his lonesome.
“AERO started very small and has grown steadily over the years,” Matt told the magazine in a Q&A published in February 2009 issue of Ground Support Worldwide. “I have been blessed to have gathered together a great group to work with. The say you should aspire to hire only those smarter than yourself. Each and every one of my group strives to remind me daily of that fact!”
In reviewing Matt’s background for our Team Leader honor, a couple of facts were clear to us: All of our past Team Leader honorees excelled in building the internal team of employees just like Matt.
“We crossed that wonderful 50-employee boundary not very long ago,” he adds. “We have people that have been with us for more than 25 years.”
Many of those employees have also chosen to stay with the business even as the aviation industry weathered its darkest days following 9/11.
“When that second plan hit, “Matt remembers, “I told my employees, and at that point, we had around 25, here’s the deal: I could lay off a third right now or we can all go to part-time schedules and give up every one of our benefits and scrape by and make it thought this. I never lost one person.”
But there’s another way to build a team and that’s by creating and maintaining solid relationships with outside manufacturers and vendors.
‘EXTERNAL TEAMWORK’
Let’s take a look at this “external” teamwork with just two examples of many.
- JetGo: Here’s one of most striking pieces of GSE in the marketplace. JetGo’s hybrid-electric direct current GPUs are designed to meet the increasing demand within the aviation industry for a quieter, more fuel-efficient “green” ground power source.
The unit differentiates itself not just by the technology inside, but also by its sleek, compact appearance.
“The most interesting thing about the JetGo is that it’s very unusual,” Matt adds. “It’s not a ‘me-too’ unit since there aren’t many diesel-hybrids on the market. That creates a positive since it grabs people’s attention, but without any initial name recognition, it made marketing the product quite challenging for the original manufacturer.”
But Sheehan worked directly with manufacturer, Rod Gray, and helped sell the line to well-known FBO chain, Atlantic Aviation.
“It took a really partnership to bring this about because we told Atlantic that, number one, this light-weight GPU is going to work fine and, number two, we’ll make sure it does.”
Work it did and sales grew. AERO ended purchasing the company from Gray – who continues to work with AERO on the product line.
“He came along with the deal,” Sheehan says, “and it’s been a great partnership.”
- Eagle Tugs: Head to an AERO booth at most any trade show, and you might think you made a wrong turn and walked into the Eagle Tug booth by mistake. But it’s no error. AERO is the exclusive U.S. corporate and FBO distributor for the line of distinctive electric tractors.
“I bought the third or fourth TT tractor they ever built,” Matt explains. “I saw a pencil sketch of this new tug coming out and, honest to God, I thought it had to be the ugliest thing I’d ever seen.”
Cosmetically, Matt says the original model was built more to an industrial standard and certainly not the look an FBO owner would want parked next to $30 million aircraft.
Appearance notwithstanding, however, Sheehan was intrigued by the all-wheel drive specs and other components.
“I’m always looking for something that isn’t a ‘me-too’ product,” he explains. “That’s a type of product that we can really get our teeth into.”
Matt quickly struck up a relationship with the company’s original owner, Dennis Morrow, to refine the appearance of the equipment. His deal to distribute started with a handful of Western states – not necessarily a hot market for aircraft handling at least at the time – but later extend to the U.S. FBO market. The distributorship deal continues to prosper under a new owner, Chase Morgan.
“We work hard for them and with them,” Matt adds. “It’s just been a great relationship.
