A year ago on Feb. 21, AVG Automation's Uticor manufacturing and engineering center went up in smoke, halting production. Thanks to state and local assistance, activity resumed a few days later in a nearby closed food store. Now, after millions of dollars in new investment to rebuild and expand the plant, and hire more staff, AVG is launching its new EZAutomation division...
A year ago on Feb. 21, AVG Automation’s Uticor manufacturing and engineering center went up in smoke, halting production. Thanks to state and local assistance, activity resumed a few days later in a nearby closed food store. Now, after millions of dollars in new investment to rebuild and expand the plant, and hire more staff, AVG is launching its new EZAutomation division, with more than 400 new products, a 340-page catalog featuring 10 product lines, and a direct-sales and support model with value-added resellers (VARs).
The company invested $5 million in the new division and product line expansion, spent another $3 million in building expansion, and received $500,000 in local and state-based assistance for fire recovery. Personnel also increased by 80 to 150 at the Bettendorf facility.
The eight new product lines include marquees, micro-modular PLCs, I/O devices, text-panel PLCs, touch-panel PLCs, touchscreen industrial PCs with a Microsoft Windows operating system, touchscreen PLC/MS Windows CE computer, and flat-panel monitors. Two enhanced products are EZPanel and EZText. The eight new product lines are EZPLC, EZI/O, EZText PLC, EZTouch PLC, EZTouchscreen CE Computer, EZCE Touchpanel, and EZMonitor. The two Microsoft Windows CE-based lines are scheduled for a March 2005 release.
