Perrysburg Scales Firm Has New Owners, Name

By Ken Kinney

A 25-year-old Perrysburg company that has built a reputation for its commercial scales has a new owner and a new name.

A.E.S. Electronic Systems, Inc., has been sold by Robert Bettinger of Carter Road , the company's founder, to Bill Rogers of Perrysburg who changed the name to A.E.S. Scales, LLC.

"I was looking for something to do, and a friend of Bettinger's knew A.E.S. was for sale," Rogers said adding "I knew of the company, and I had seen its trucks, but I didn't know too much about it." Rogers' family had owned and sold the S & R Equipment Co. in Perrysburg.

"I had some concern because I was new this business," Rogers said, "but the team in place gave me some confidence." Rogers and his wife Sue are sole owners of A.E.S. Scales, LLC.

"We kept all employees except one, 14 of 15," Rogers said, "and we have a lot of very experienced people, a good, strong team." A key player is Jeff Kohl of Perrysburg Township , operations manager and an employee since 1980.

"In addition, we'll continue to keep Bettinger as a consultant," he said.

"We're a distributor of weighing equipment," he continued, "with two-thirds to three-quarters (of efforts) in sales and service of scales and the remainder in custom systems." The original company, according to former owner Bettinger, was involved almost entirely with agriculture. "But now," said new owner Rogers, "agriculture accounts for just 20 to 25 percent of total business."

Although "sales have been kind of level in the last few years," Rogers said, "[July, the month I took over the business] was a good month... [and August] appears to be a very big month also. We met our expectations." Much of the sales volume is repeat business, especially on service and maintenance of scales, he said.

A major AES step was taken, Rogers said, in 2001 when the company received its ISO 17025 certification which enables AES to serve customers who have been certified with the ISO 9002 designation.

"Our plan," Rogers said, "is to try to grow the core business, and we would be looking to add sources to go along. The core business," he explained, "is to see that industrial gauges, any type in an industrial plant, are properly calibrated.

"We can start with the existing work force." He added, "we will probably also add a customer service sales person.

"The company operates two heavy-duty trucks which are equipped to test and certify truck scales in grain elevators and quarries," operations manager Kohl said.

Rogers is a native of Jeffersonville, Ind. He is a graduate of the University of Indianapolis with a degree in business administration. He has lived in Perrysburg since 1979.