The next time you’re in a Super Walmart or other “big box” retail store, take a look at the ceiling. Those square or hexagonal-shaped contraptions with louvers that are suspended from the top most likely were made by AES Industries, located on Alabama Highway 229 South in Tallassee.
The ceiling-mounted drop box diffusers distribute heated and cooled air throughout large interior spaces. AES Industries also manufactures roof curbs, which are large frames designed to mount exterior heating and cooling units on buildings.
The company fabricates these items out of galvanized steel and ships them to giant retail corporations, including The Home Depot, Kroger, Best Buy and Target, among others.
They also make and sell smaller versions of their products to national chains that have smaller square-footage locations, such as McDonald’s, Walgreens and Dollar General.
AES Industries was founded in 1988 by Ricky Benton and Lenard McGharr, both of whom are now deceased. Ricky Benton’s son, Jason, is now president of the operation. Benton began working with his father’s enterprise at the age of 20, and he’s been a part of the tremendous growth that AES has seen since the turn of the century.
“Our Tallassee facility began in east Tallassee, and we opened this facility in 2001,” Benton said, “We now have 95,000 square feet and have continued to expand as the demand for our products and services has increased. We presently have 132 employees here.”
The company also has facilities in Weatherford, Texas (40,000 sq. ft.), Reno, Nevada (12,000 sq. ft.), and Wheeling, West Virginia (65,000 sq. ft.), and the Tallassee plant has diversified to include two new divisions on the company sign out front.
“AES transitioned to include national account HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) replacement and recycling due to growing customer needs,” Benton explained. “The average life of non-coastal HVAC equipment is 15 years, with coastal HVAC lasting eight to 10 years. AES Mechanical is a nationally-licensed HVAC contractor that focuses exclusively on national account HVAC replacement. This allows our retail customers to have a single-source replacement program.”
The company has more than 20 specially-trained crews that travel the country for installation projects.
The recycling facet is known as AES Reclaim, an appropriate name for the disassembly of worn out or expired heating and cooling equipment.
“We wanted to manage waste streams from end-of-life HVAC equipment,” said Benton. “Expired equipment poses a significant environmental risk if not properly handled and recovered.”
The AES recycling program is used exclusively by many of the same accounts that purchase AES Industries’ drop box diffusers and roof curbs.
“We recycle copper and other metals, as well as parts from electric motors, and we salvage the refrigerants and oil in such machinery,” the company president said. “And we conform to Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.”
And the future of AES looks bright, said Benton, who has an eye on the next wave of activity of the Tallassee-based business. He expects the next boom to hit in about two years.
“If you remember, there was an explosion of retail construction – particularly ‘big box’ stores – from around 2001 to 2008,” he said. “The greatest demand for HVAC replacement will happen between 2017 and 2022 when those units that were on the buildings that were constructed in that earlier boom start to expire. We plan to continue to grow our customer base within our existing business, specifically with replacement and recycling.”
