PrintAug. 8--From missiles to nuclear fuel rods, one Tucson company is making sure its customers' sensitive products show up safely at their destinations.
Tucson-based AGM Container Controls Inc. makes gizmos that shippers and consumers may take for granted: valves that regulate pressure, sensors that sniff out excess moisture and tubes of desiccant that keep a container's contents dry.
The company is expanding to meet increased demand that drove its 33 percent growth in shipments last year. Construction is proceeding on a 21,000-square-foot building to meet that demand.
AGM's chief executive attributes much of the company's success to its corporate structure as an employee-owned company.
President and CEO Howard N. Stewart says giving workers a stake in the business makes for a better working environment for the more than 100 salaried and hourly employees.
"I'm not a faceless corporation," Stewart said. "I want this to work for all of us."
Indeed, the company's figures show his approach has worked. AGM boasts a higher-than-average retention rate among its employees, with the salaried workers staying for about 14 years and hourly employees for about five.
It's a record that Stewart says he keeps up by being attuned to employee's concerns. "I go out of my way to explain benefits" to employees, he said. " 'Do you have a will? An IRA?' " he would ask.
AGM is privately held and operates an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, which makes its employees owners of the company's stock. As of 2006, AGM's stock value was $26.71, the most recent figures available from the company.
AGM's workplace practices have helped the company win several plaudits in recent years, among them a Wells Fargo Copper Cactus award for community service in 2004 and a Copper Cactus for business growth in 2001.
In March, AGM was among four winners of a best-practices award in the sixth annual Workplace Excellence Awards, sponsored by Tucson's Newspapers and the Society for Human Resource Management of Greater Tucson.
Stewart started at AGM in 1971 in the company's shipping department, working with his family in a company that has roots back to his father decades ago.
AGM opened its doors six decades ago making sensors and air-pressure valves for shipping containers. It has diversified its business within the last 20 years, adding the Ascension wheelchair-lift division that serves several markets, including some New York City public schools.
But even as it expands, AGM has avoided farming out work elsewhere, something many companies are doing to cut overhead.
Stewart said AGM prides itself on being a locally based firm, one that keeps its workers in town and not overseas, although he acknowledged that's partly because of work the company does with defense contractors.
A longtime customer said AGM excels at delivering vital parts to meet shipping schedules.
"They're awesome," said Dale Lannon, the purchasing manager of Hardigg Industries in South Deerfield, Mass., a maker of shipping cases and a customer for AGM's valves and humidity indicators. "It's critical in our supply chain that we have these parts available when we need them, and they're exceptional."
AGM also makes and distributes parts for other Tucson-area companies. Evergreen Maintenance Center Inc. uses AGM-distributed desiccant for aircraft storage, and Raytheon Missile Systems keeps the electronics and optics on some missiles dry with AGM components.
"We like to build quality," said Stewart, satisfied as he looked around his warehouse. "We don't build crap, but build the best."
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DID YOU KNOW
There are 152 local companies that offer logistics services from trucking to packaging for the purpose of international trade.
In 2007, the United States exported more than $1 trillion worth of goods; Arizona's share of that international business was $18.3 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.
--Contact reporter Jack Gillum at 573-4178 or at jgillum@azstarnet.com
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