Business View Magazine Jan-2019

61 someone who can take care of 20 or 30 projects in a day, so we’re in unique territory.Our distribution net- work covers local Metro Atlanta, north Georgia, and middle Georgia with our own delivery and installa- tion crews,while the nationwide products going out to our dealer network are, in most cases, delivered LTL.” A shortage of skilled labor is one of the biggest is- sues facing AGCO.The state of Georgia is at a histor- ically low unemployment rate–which is great, but when you’re looking for people, it’s also a challenge. “That’s why we’ve looked so much into automation,” says COO,Matt Pulliam.“Another big factor for us is that there is a lot of consolidation going on. It’s been a splintered industry–lots of small local shops– but that is changing. So,we have to navigate how we can capitalize on this consolidation.Whether that’s through consolidating, ourselves,with strate- gic acquisitions, or partnering with other manufac- turers who may want to get out of manufacturing and just sell product and let us manufacture it for them.” Product innovation has soared in the last decade with the inception of new engineered stone prod- ucts.And the search for lighter-weight components is ongoing at AGCO, since they ship across the country.The heavier the weight, the more it costs. Matt notes,“We’re working with different types of light-weight fillers to see how they affect the prop- erties once the products are cured.There’s been some innovation on the natural stone side with new sintered stone products hitting the market that are even stronger than the quartzmaterial. Since we make our own cast polymer products,we’re always trying to mimic the sintered stone products that they’re making with heat and pressure and lots of