 The owner of AAA, Larry Adams, has been in business over 30
years in the Lincoln area. When he and his brothers started the
company, he was the owner and his brothers were employees of the
business.Adams recently purchased the 12,000-square-foot building
at the corner of Logan and Clinton and intends to make it the home
of AAA for many years to come.
The building is divided into two sections. The south side, which
has a corner entry, will be the business display and sales offices.
The north end will be the warehouse for inventory.
General manager Tom Slicko explained that AAA has occupied the
warehouse space for quite some time, paying rent to the previous
owner.
The new location is going to be not only a showroom, but also a
showplace. The first area a person sees when entering through the
corner door will be the official showroom of the business. There
will also be offices for sales staff and a large conference room.
Slicko explained that the conference room will be done with tray
ceilings and chandeliers and French doors opening into the room.
Past the showroom and down the length of a hall, there will be a
large coffee and lunchroom area for the staff, staff bathrooms, and
a "lead generation room."
Slicko explained that the lead generation room will be for the
staff that makes cold calls within the service area, surveying
potential customers and hopefully setting up appointments for sales
staff to make on-site visits.
Farther down the hall, a space that at the moment is wide open
will be turned into executive offices and offices for the accounting
department. Beyond that area is another large space Adams said he
isn't sure what he's going to do with.
Slicko commented that the storefront building on the square was
really not big enough for all the displays they needed as well as
staff. The new location, though in rough shape at the moment, will
be a much larger space that will allow the company to continue to
grow as it has in the past few years.
AAA Window Siding and Roofing covers a 90-mile radius that
includes Decatur, Peoria and Springfield. The company hires outside
salesmen who live in the communities they serve.
Slicko said altogether there are about 90 employees of the
company, including the sales staff, Lincoln office and showroom
staff, and installation crews.
Slicko said AAA is a unique business in that they do not go out
for working on new construction homes. Rather they work almost
exclusively with remodels, and they specialize in custom-built
windows.
All the windows they sell are sold as AAA brand and made to
order.
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Slicko said this is an important service in communities such as
Lincoln where the popular trend is to try to care for and keep up a
much older home.
"There are times when each window in an older home may be a
quarter-inch off from all the others. We measure each one and build
each window to fit the house," he said.
What the company offers to those who love their older homes with
the larger, longer windows is a product whereby they don't have to
compromise the aesthetic of the home in order to have new,
energy-efficient windows.
Although the thought of a custom product often implies "more
costly," that may not actually be the case, Slicko said. When a
contractor is making the house fit the window, there is more labor
involved, and in some of the older homes where there might be rich
wood trims, some of that is going to be lost.
"The windows may be more expensive, but the labor is going to be
less," he said. "So it can really end up being a wash."
Plus, some of the original character of the home is saved when
new modern wood trims don't have to go into a vintage home.
In addition to windows, the company also deals with siding,
roofing and energy-efficient insulation products.
Adams and Slicko agree business has been good for the company.
"Even since 2008 when the housing business kind of fell, we've
managed to grow," Slicko said.
A part of the success of the company is the attitude of the
company, he said.
"We do things the right way. That may be the best way to say it.
Like, we're putting this building together, we're doing it the right
way and that is the same thing we do with everybody's homes: We do
it the right way."
A grand opening at the new location is being planned for later in
the summer.
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http://www.tripleasiding.com/
[By NILA SMITH]
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