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Business View Magazine
The impetus to get started, in fact, was a product of a
childhood spent in and around a local appliance and
furniture business that was in his family for three de-
cades.
“I had an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “My parents
had their own company and I worked in it, and I owned
my own small business back in the 1980s – a little
small retail establishment – so it was comfortable
ground for me. I was the oldest son, and worked in my
dad’s business from the time I was 12-13 years old
and all through college.”
An overall workforce of over 90 employees covers the
operations in Greensboro and elsewhere, and Fearn
said roughly half that total has been added over the
last three years after a corporate-level decision was
made to “unleash” the company’s growth potential
rather than try to “control” it. The core impetus to grow
was that the industry needed the unique solutions ABT
was bringing to the market, with its combination of
cost and capital savings for customers and its focus on
technology and innovation. ABT felt almost duty-bound
to expand what it was doing.
The service facilities in Atlanta and Birmingham have
been added since that crossroads moment. Though
the company’s traditional distribution and vendor/
