Matt Weitzel: 0:01

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Matt Weitzel: 0:55

This is Brad Compton, this is Luke Brown, this is Jeff Barrett, this is Tessa Farson and you are listening to the GSE Podcast. All right, well, this is Matt with the GSE Podcast, and I am with Avro GSE today, and we are actually at the Fort Brand MCO location. For those of you who don't know, that means Orlando, and we are sitting in the conference room at our Orlando maintenance facility, and this will be the first podcast that I have recorded under the Fort Brand banner and it happens to be at the Fort Brand location. So I really appreciate Avro joining me today. I have Caden Scott and Andrew Snare and Simon on the phone here. Andrew and Caden were nice enough to come to Orlando and they're sitting in front of me and Simon is on the telephone here. So, caden, how's it going today, buddy, yeah very good, thank you.

Kaden Scott: 1:54

Thank you very much, matt, for having us on.

Matt Weitzel: 1:57

Yeah, not a problem, andrew, how you doing? Oh, I'm doing fantastic.

Andrew Snair: 2:00

Are you? Yeah, the West Coast time change hasn't quite cut up to me yet, so we're kind of playing it a little bit by year, but this morning feels great. Thanks for having us on.

Matt Weitzel: 2:10

Yeah, not a problem. I guess I didn't realize that you were West Coast.

Andrew Snair: 2:14

Yeah, I live in Portland and work out of Portland.

Matt Weitzel: 2:17

Oh, okay, nice, Okay. And then so, andrew, how did you get started in the GSE industry? So, andrew, how did you get started in the GSE industry?

Andrew Snair: 2:23

Yeah, that's an interesting question, Probably a little more simple than some of the other stories out there, but I've always been in account management, so that's been my focus for the last 10 years, and an opportunity came up with Avro. Avro is a newer company on the scene and they were growing rapidly and there's this interesting opportunity to be part of something that's growing and actually help build out the client relations strategy and the account management strategy. And so that's what drew me to Avro is there's this one-time opportunity to really pick my people, set the strategy, sit down with the leadership team and make sure that we're all going in the same direction and to capture really the long-term potential. And so I had known, I knew the GM there and I knew the CEO of Saskark, which is the parent company of Avro, and so that was kind of my way in in 2023, we started talking and then, towards the end of 2023, we made the switch and I formally came on as sales manager.

Matt Weitzel: 3:23

Oh, okay, nice. So no GSE experience, just account manager experience.

Andrew Snair: 3:27

Exactly so. No GSE experience.

Andrew Snair: 3:30

My experience in account management had been almost in a project management role for professional services, so it was for a design build firm focused on basically class A office fit out and so completely different industry, but all the principles applied to setting up that type of organization and that type of department where we wanted to have very, very thorough reach, and we also wanted to have a strategy to not only really harvest what we had grown and expanded into, which was the ground handling market, but to also open the airline market up for Avro.

Matt Weitzel: 4:04

Okay, nice. And then how are you finding the GSE industry to be? Oh, it's an amazing industry.

Andrew Snair: 4:11

I've never been in an industry like it. It's so niche and so small and it's amazing how everyone's connected, so it's almost makes our job simple. Yeah, if you've got the good products and the good services, it almost does the work for you in some regard. Um so, and it's been a pleasure meeting you know yourself and so many other people on at the ghi show and looking forward to the gse expo coming up here in the next four weeks, I guess yeah, man for sure.

Matt Weitzel: 4:39

And then we also have like, as I mentioned, cadence here, and, uh, I think everybody in the industry knows Cadence, cadence. How did you get your start in the GSE industry?

Kaden Scott: 4:49

It's quite an interesting question. It's a family business. In 1991, my dad started SaskArk. We added in 2011, a company called Axiom, which is like we manufacture light towers, generators and that kind of lighting equipment, and then we were basically reselling SafeSmart, which is access equipment. So there's a lot of like maintenance platforms and all that sort of stuff. So we were already kind of dealing with some MRO and kind of in the industry. And, sorry, nine years ago we decided, well, we're already talking to a lot of these contacts, let's work on like let's set up Avro and, you know, start selling GSE equipment.

Kaden Scott: 5:30

And I guess, for myself, seven years ago I started at SaskArk as a just a forklift and welder in the shop and did that for three years and then I guess, yeah, then went into an office role for a couple of years and then two and a half years ago I basically I wanted to get into selling and I was kind of looking around and with Saskark it's such a complicated like it's structural steel there's. It's such a complex selling. You really have to know the ins and outs of welding and struts and wellers and all that kind of stuff. And so I I, yeah, I came over to Avro and actually, andrew was my boss for the first year. I actually joined about six months before Andrew.

Matt Weitzel: 6:10

Okay.

Kaden Scott: 6:12

And same thing as what Andrew said is, once we kind of got into it and set the stage and all got aligned, I think it's very, very incredible what we as a team have set and our vision to, basically because we kind of got into the industry just technically trading product Like we never. We weren't true OEM, so we were bringing in products and out of Indiana, out of Asia, white labeling it and selling it, which was working okay. But I guess from a quality standpoint we saw a huge opportunity to, as we transitioned to OEM, to really improve that because we were not happy with the level ourself and anyway. So yeah, that's kind of a brief introduction on how I was.

Matt Weitzel: 6:52

Okay, so in the beginning Avro was not manufacturing things themselves. You were buying from other manufacturers, you know, and then putting the Avro sticker on that and then that was now Avro. Now that has changed in the last. How long? Yeah, probably.

Kaden Scott: 7:09

I would say a year ago we started the journey. Obviously the tariffs really helped that and kind of the current government in the US, which I would say we're very thankful that it's pushed us to start this transition. But now we've set up. So we have a factory in Manitoba making our non-powered equipment, we have one in Minnesota making non-powered equipment, we have one in Estonia and one in Italy for making our ground power units and then we still are using a lot of we have a lot of, I guess, product coming out of Asia, still that we'll be transitioning in the first quarter of the year into into other Minnesota, wisconsin.

Matt Weitzel: 7:46

So yep, okay, so are you just currently now manufacturing everything at Avro, or is there still some things that you're, that you're white labeling there?

Kaden Scott: 7:55

is on some of it. We've what we've done, like with the Estonia plant and the Italian plant. We've it's a combination like where we've partnered with them and kind of co-engineered for the North American market, okay, and so we've set up like separate assembly lines specifically for us, okay, um, but then our non-powered equipment and a lot of our like tractors and stuff that's, that's our own, like our non-powered stuff. I was talking yesterday with with one of our plant managers and we're able to now, like our baggage carts, for example. We're able to go up to 85 carts a week if we want. So basically what we've done is we've set up like quality product with product or sorry, with factories that are able to really get volume, and that's kind of our key thing was, as we transitioned, we didn't want to do any low quality products, like we used to do a lot of fixed axle baggage carts, for example. Now we're only doing torsion and galvan yield just to try really bring the bar up, because it was just not aligned with our kind of corporate vision.

Andrew Snair: 8:54

Yeah.

Kaden Scott: 8:54

Selling that kind of product?

Andrew Snair: 8:55

Yeah, that's interesting because that was one of the first tasks that we were given from the Saskark leadership team or the Avro leadership team the same thing. But they had asked us to reach out to every one of our clients and every one of our prospective clients and we had a series of questions about the quality of the service you're getting. And this is going back to early 2024, yeah and um, and so we did these calls and I think we talked to probably 80 people in the industry and got all this feedback and we kept hearing that they love the Avro team, they love the people, they love the attentiveness. There was large improvements that we had to make on parts and service. Then product quality was the other big thing that came up and it seemed like if we fixed those two issues that we would have lifelong clients that would continue to grow every year.

Andrew Snair: 9:48

But those two issues is kind of what kept Caden and myself busy for the last basically two years, working through those corrections, resetting up the team on the parts and service and the parts and service, caden, you can talk about how much has changed. I mean before you know, there wasn't exactly the proper system, those systems in place, but they needed to be refined and tweaked, and then we didn't have enough locations, so we were cross border shipping and so with tariff and custom delays like our duties and everything like there was unpredictability in that, and so that's really where we've been focusing on and course correcting, and then you can definitely see it, as some of these bigger airlines are starting to use us. It's because they've had that experience and they've kind of seen that journey. And so that's kind of the whole goal is we're making changes, but how do we bring our clients along for the journey as well?

Matt Weitzel: 10:38

Yeah, for sure. And then I imagine that bringing on Simon was very important in that journey as well.

Kaden Scott: 10:44

Yes, yes, yes, Simon, he is absolutely awesome to have on the team. I mean he can speak to it but kind of along the whole journey is transitioning. He's probably the main guy kind of overseeing all of that.

Matt Weitzel: 10:57

Yes, simon, talk to us a little bit about what you're doing from the product development side.

Simone Livraghi: 11:03

Okay, so I'm Simon Livraghi. I joined Adro in April 2025. My background experience is in ground handling and manufacturing GSE. My previous role. I was the general manager in Blissbox in Thailand and I've been with them for almost a year. So with Valor, I decided to change my career and move to America and yeah, yeah, I am probably my new face in this continent, but I've been in this industry for many, many years. My objective here is to expand the product range and establish manufacturing in North America.

Simone Livraghi: 11:57

So I follow both of the non-motorized and the motorized equipment, of the non-motorized and the motorized equipment. So so far, we got a very good stage of non-motorized was the first phase of our development projects. So now we have a car, baggage cars, cargo car and dollies and made in Canada, and dollies and made in Canada. From the motorized equipment, we are coming up with new products. Some will be displayed in Vegas like a towable conveyor belt. Also the GPU, the electric GPU and the battery GPU. So the development now we see next year releasing new products that I can't disclose at the moment, but something good is coming up in.

Simone Livraghi: 12:55

January and we will be able to disclose that at late fall this year. So this is what I'm doing. Of course, with my background and my experience in manufacturing, this helped a lot to speed up all these development processes and open up factories and production lines to start producing these equipment in North America.

Matt Weitzel: 13:22

Okay, and then so recently, you know, tell me if I'm wrong, but I know a little bit about Avro so you all recently come out with some new GPUs, You've come out with a new pushback series, the Titan series. Is that correct? Yeah, and then what else is like yeah, sorry, go ahead. Simon. What were you going to say?

Simone Livraghi: 13:42

Yeah, we're coming up with a new bag extractor series, diesel and electric. We're not in the phase yet to disclose so much, but this is a new product that is going to come in and is going to be fully made in North America. So, as Kaylin said before, politics or geopolitics push us into these projects and we are getting in there and we believe the North American customer will appreciate a lot in this quality product development in the continent.

Kaden Scott: 14:21

And just to jump on, I would say what Simonon said, like we were gonna do it. It was in our five-year plan but obviously we've kind of compressed our five-year plan into our one-year plan, so to speak. But we're actually very, very thankful because what it really allows us to do like obviously it's massive investment, you know, designing these products and setting up assembly lines and all this stuff but just to even bring the quality and the just the level, the standard of the equipment up, you know, when it's made right in north america, is our core focus. Yes, we are doing exports and we have excess product availability, but it's just really enabled us to bring the bar up on our whole product quality and our parts and our service, and which we're really happy about because that's our long-term vision is just to set up for north america and just hone in on that basically, did I miss where the the location is in north america, or have you disclosed it, or is it not ready to be disclosed?

Kaden Scott: 15:15

I can't remember yeah, so we do have one in minnesota right now which is which is going good and it's a lot of like. We have a lot of parts coming out of there and equipment is there and then we are potentially what Simon's speaking as to. That will either be Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Matt Weitzel: 15:30

Okay, like another manufacturing facility, so the one in Minnesota currently, is that all non-motorized at the moment.

Kaden Scott: 15:38

So actually right now in Minnesota we have, I guess we have two, one a, basically just a pdi and parts warehouse where we bring equipment in that's maybe not made in north america at this point, like for example the gpus or whatever that we're making in italy. So we'll bring them in, do the pdi load bank and test them before sending them out, okay, and then parts and then we do have for our some of our like our lab and water carts made in Minnesota, about 40 minutes from our other location. Yeah, so it will, depending on where we do the tractors, that will also be a separate, a separate one as well.

Matt Weitzel: 16:10

So what is the second? Uh, the second one that you were talking about, the. What are the capabilities of that Minnesota for the lab and water cart? Are you all just assembling there or like? What does that look like?

Kaden Scott: 16:21

Yep, so Are you all just assembling there or like what does that look like? Yep, so that is like top to bottom welding. Oh wow, yep.

Matt Weitzel: 16:26

You getting in there and welding again, yeah.

Kaden Scott: 16:29

I think the people wouldn't appreciate my welds. They want something that lasts. Okay, got it.

Andrew Snair: 16:36

That's. One of the fascinating things, though, is that it's like the whole strategic direction of Avro has changed. And when we're going talking into the actual OEM process, like for our bag carts, we're actually manufacturing our own components. So we're bending the metal in that plant to actually manufacture our own torsion axles. So before we were having to actually keep a massive amount of parts in stock, which we're still doing. But also when you're making the part yourself on the manufacturing floor, I mean you've got the part there, you have the design like how easy to go out and grab that part from the manufacturing floor if you needed to, yeah Right. And so it's kind of coming back to the point where we're in control of everything.

Kaden Scott: 17:19

And I think, as we kind of look and like, as we leverage the whole core capabilities of Saskart Group. Like you might say, out of the four companies that Saskart Group has, avro is the smallest, but what we have is we have a huge financial backing that's basically allowing us to do these investments, but we also have a full network of various strategic partnerships. So, for example, like these, as Andrew's saying, on the whole non-powered equipment, like it's top to bottom, we're manufacturing it. There's three patents on it, the torsion axle, everything is built in-house and what we did is one of our plants that is in Manitoba, that's set up basically just to hammer these things out is that's the reason why we can hit these volumes Like we are.

Kaden Scott: 18:03

I know right now we're not running at 85 carts a week, we're running at about 50. I know right now we're not running at 85 carts a week, we're running at about 50. But what's so incredible, I guess, as we've got together as a team and aligned and all working in the same direction, is basically from seven months. We had nothing to do with any non-powered equipment besides trading, and now we have one of the biggest production capacities. That's in North America. It's Terra Free. We're shipping them globally now with flat pack options. It's tariff free. We're shipping them globally now with flat pack options, and so it just kind of goes to show that as we really got together as a team and we're aligned the transition and how quick it can happen. Yeah, that's an amazing story.

Matt Weitzel: 18:31

I can't believe that. So before you all were kind of, like you said, buying other people's equipment, reselling it. Now you're manufacturing it all yourself. And so I know that when I was with XSEED, we had some issues with some you know very beginning product line right out of Avro. I think we supported you guys like from day one kind of thing, and we had some issues. You were able to come in there and help us out, solve those issues and then give us, you know, new product and which was in the Titan series is, I think, what ended up coming out of that and we've had all good, positive feedback about the Titan and you really took care of us and so we really appreciate that right and we appreciate the partnership. And so how have you handled? Because, like you said, you went from white labeling products and now manufacturing themselves. Like, how are you all?

Andrew Snair: 19:29

supporting that stuff that was out in the field from the very beginning. So that goes back to my comment earlier about keeping a lot of parts in stock still. So we're obligated to support everything that's out in the field for basically the next 10, 15 years, right?

Matt Weitzel: 19:42

Exactly.

Andrew Snair: 19:43

So it's a long-term game. Caden, you can kind of dive into the details on that.

Kaden Scott: 19:47

Yeah, like it's a very, very interesting question because I think like, as you were speaking as kind of the teething problems, you might say, like when I first joined Avro I was like, hey, we're going places where, you know, this is looking pretty good. And it became very, very clear within a few months that there was very big issues in the parts and service side. And I mean, ultimately, we all know it's powered equipment, it's going to break, but how is it to fix it? Everything's going to break, but how easy is it for parts, how easy is it for service? And I think we really saw a huge opportunity to just dramatically increase that and expand that capability. And so, as Andrew said, like we're obligated to support it.

Kaden Scott: 20:24

But with cross border as well, you know, if you have parts in Canada, you ship them across. They could be in customs for five minutes or five weeks, you don't know, depending on if the guy you know or, yeah, depending on how, how he's feeling that day, basically. But basically we've added in our parts and service team. This year alone there's six people that have been added that are just outbound selling parts and service, and our parts stock has increased by over 15 times what it was at the start of the year in both locations. So if it's in the US, it will ship from the US, if it's in Canada, it will ship from Canada, just to avoid delays. And basically, we look at a piece of equipment and if I call for an order of part, I don't want to wait any time, I don't, which we're not quite like we're. We have a lot, lot more stock coming in, but so by the end of the year we'll get there. But yeah, so we we have a very big inventory of parts.

Matt Weitzel: 21:15

Yeah, I remember what you called me about a year, year and a half ago and you know we were kind of discussing the strategy with parts and where they should be located and and you know what your vision was and all that kind of stuff. And then you moved on that almost immediately. I remember getting off the phone with you and I was thinking, oh well, this is going to take forever to set up and Caden had it done in a matter of weeks probably. But but that's amazing that you're able to support. So what is a? What are the? From a technician standpoint? You know, something goes down. Do you all have traveling technicians? What? What does that? What does that kind of like support group look like?

Kaden Scott: 21:50

Yep, so we, we have roughly four of our own internal like Avro technicians, but then we also have a network in the U? S with, you know, third party ones that we will use. So we can dispatch our own if it's, if we think we need to, or if we can dispatch one of them and, you know, get on a video call or try diagnose it that way, but also a lot of our like our GPUs and all that stuff. It's all like telematics. We can go on our computer and diagnose it from Oxbow or Minnesota, etc. Sort of thing.

Matt Weitzel: 22:19

So yeah, that's yeah, that's pretty cool, yeah. And then, um, like you said, parts stocks. You know heavy it's in the U S, so it can ship out, probably next day, get to get to wherever it needs to be, yep, okay, all right, let's start talking about, uh, some products specifically. So I think when you all started, you did not have pushbacks. Is that correct? That's something that's kind of more recent, and is the Titan series your first kind of iteration of the pushback? I guess?

Andrew Snair: 22:49

So we did start with one pushback.

Matt Weitzel: 22:52

It was a basic.

Andrew Snair: 22:52

It was called the PT2690D, Okay, and so that pushback was kind of where we entered the market, we cut our teeth on that, yeah, and we ended up getting so much feedback like positive feedback on it. But also we had there's like little critiques from our clients and it kind of speaks to the overall direction of the sales team where, instead of just calling and trying to sell product when we started making this transition for supply chain, it's all about getting client feedback and bringing them the clients to the process for design, development and R&D and collecting that feedback so we can actually make a better product and bringing the clients along for that journey. And on the PT2690D there was just quite a few changes or requests for change that came out of all that feedback. And that's what the Titan series is. It's our approach to capturing the feedback we got in the North American market on the PT2690D and then producing a quality product with all those features that were requested, like a different engine, for example, remote diagnostics, and then also different quality components within the actual cab itself.

Kaden Scott: 23:58

And you look at that Titan PT350, for example. It's high speed towing capability, it's come standard with transmission coolers and it's a higher output engine than our competition. And I mean we basically just after as Andrew said, like after getting customer led feedback, it's like what are the things that is missing from our current product and how can we integrate that into our new products? That is missing from our current product and how can we integrate that into our new products? And I think that goes to speak as to our whole product kind of portfolio.

Kaden Scott: 24:31

As we're launching products or new products are coming out, we're getting direct it's customer led feedback. That's really, you know, even on the design of these baggage carts and stuff, we had multiple calls with the engineering teams at American Airlines and other people that came in and they said they were very heavily involved with just all the specs and I mean Unify there's quite a few that were just which I mean is really kind of the way that we've broken into the market so quick. I would say it's just because it's what it's actually what the people want.

Matt Weitzel: 24:59

Oh, I like that. What the people want, is that the? New slogan for Avro what the people want.

Andrew Snair: 25:05

Yeah, it should be. Our new slogan is best on ground. Oh, best on ground, so it's like we view it as a mindset. So it's an internal challenge, almost Like are we showing up every day. Are we the best on ground? Did we answer that email the best we could? Did we get back to that client the quickest? It's kind of like a test that we all think about.

Kaden Scott: 25:24

I like it, yeah, and with that so like best on ground. That's kind of like our external Everything can be measured off that, but internally it's like we're on it, we're human, we're unstoppable. So yeah, we're going to make mistakes, we're human, but we're fix it, we're unstoppable. Just keep driving forward to make stuff happen.

Matt Weitzel: 25:42

Yeah, I mean, you all are always on top of it. I got to say, uh, when I ask for quotes or when I make phone calls, you guys, you always answer. I can't say the same for myself, because I'm always recording podcasts, but uh, uh, but. But you all are, um, you all are fantastic at that. So is it a full series of pushbacks? Um, so you go the whole way, up to wide body.

Andrew Snair: 26:02

Yeah, so the special thing about the Titan series is that it has the right engineering approach. So we've got hydraulic coolers and transmission coolers and what it allows is what Keaton mentioned is the long haul towing capability. Oh really. So you're seeing like some of the airlines now standardize on this unit, and we took that first step with X Exceed on that demo unit in Tampa, but we're standardized in that capacity now with that airline and it's because of that feature. So instead of spending hundreds of thousands more on a tow barless unit for the right application and for maintenance tows, this is a unit for that job. That's incredible.

Matt Weitzel: 26:41

So it's very. I didn't. That's incredible. So it's very I didn't realize that. Yeah, it's very, very strategically Cade should have done a better job selling that unit. It's very strategically engineered.

Andrew Snair: 26:50

So we're actually solving a problem. I mean, the problem in the industry is that if you take a standard pushback or tow tractor that's conventional and you start using that for long, long toast.

Kaden Scott: 27:01

You're going to burn the engine of the transmission.

Andrew Snair: 27:03

So that's our specific value for that application with this unit.

Matt Weitzel: 27:12

Oh, wow, that's amazing. I'm glad to ask that question now because I had no idea. That's fantastic, guys. That's a huge issue that airlines and ground handlers are dealing with all the time, so way to go on that one. So how are the sales of those going in the US? Pretty good, yeah, so we're sold out of all of our production for this year.

Andrew Snair: 27:26

Wow. So production is our constraint right now.

Matt Weitzel: 27:29

I should start putting in POs now. Is that what you're telling me?

Andrew Snair: 27:32

Exactly.

Matt Weitzel: 27:33

That's why we came here today. I love it so all right. So let's dive into the GPUs real quick. So that's kind of a fairly new product for you guys. Where's that being manufactured? What does the long term look like for that? And kind of go through that product line with me?

Kaden Scott: 27:54

Yep, I don't know, simon, do you want to take that one?

Simone Livraghi: 27:58

Yes, for sure. Yeah, so just to give you an overview, our bestselling GPU at the moment is still the diesel, and it's a product completely different to what our competitors have, because the engine rotates at 1500 rpm and is much lower compared to our competitors, and this gives incredible advantage to the customer into fuel consumptions and into the reduction of noise on the ramp that today is a quite big issue, so that saving in fuel consumption is extremely high and this is our key selling feature and we had done this involving our customer and listen a lot to the customer voice, and this is what we do in our product development. Yeah, we have also another line. That is, the battery. Gpu Today is very popular, I think, all over the world where there are power supply infrastructure facilities, and then, to not forget, the electric GPU, especially for the MRO and for airports where there is the proper power supply. So this is a complete game changer in our product range.

Matt Weitzel: 29:37

Yeah, I agree. Where's that being manufactured at the moment? I can't remember. Is that in Italy?

Simone Livraghi: 29:44

So the electric GPU are manufactured in Estonia. Okay and sorry, I forget to say something about these GPUs. The efficiency is around 96%, and what currently other manufacturers do, that they're efficient in converting the energy, are around 60-70%. Even that is focused on the power savings. So this has been our core philosophy in designing GPUs.

Andrew Snair: 30:17

Yeah, nice, okay, yeah. And then the diesel and the battery GPUs are in Italy, yeah, okay.

Kaden Scott: 30:24

Gotcha, and even on that I mean, we're now air freighting them over, because we can't get them over here quick enough.

Andrew Snair: 30:30

Jeez yeah.

Kaden Scott: 30:32

So no, I mean, as Simon said, I mean there's a reason kind of why they're selling so quick, it's? He went over the efficiencies of both.

Matt Weitzel: 30:41

So you have nineties, you have one eighties, is that? Do you have a one 80 battery?

Andrew Snair: 30:47

Yeah, Wow, yep, yep. So so there's one being air shipped. What? What model is it as being air shipped? They'll be in New York in two weeks. Yeah, so that's a 90 diesel. Yeah, 90 diesel. We're air shipping one in for a client to new york in two weeks, so maybe we can meet up there and do a little review on that yeah, when's it land, uh, first week of september, and where in new york, in new york.

Matt Weitzel: 31:15

Oh okay, oh well, you know I might be able to make that trip who knows?

Kaden Scott: 31:18

yeah, you know, I have an office in new york now, so I don't really have a lot of excuses.

Matt Weitzel: 31:23

I guess I haven't been up to the new fort brand off. Oh, and it's not new fort brand, is it's been there? I have been there, but, uh, I was actually. They were a customer of mine the last time that I was there, uh, and now I work for them, so yeah so, yeah, I do need to go and visit new york.

Matt Weitzel: 31:37

Maybe I should, uh, maybe I go go see this new GPU that's just landed. Um, so then baggage tractors you offer. I'm seeing a diesel baggage tractor, is that? Is that the only power option at the moment is diesel, or do you have gas? Yep.

Kaden Scott: 31:52

Um, so we've gas, diesel and an electric.

Matt Weitzel: 31:55

Okay, and then with gas? What? What engine are you using? So it is the.

Kaden Scott: 32:00

PSI 2.4. Okay, but we do have the option for the Deutz 2.9. Okay.

Matt Weitzel: 32:06

As well. So yep, and then electric. You're using lithium, or can they do lithium or lead acid or Yep?

Kaden Scott: 32:12

Both. So we basically just set them up for whatever we can drop, basically any battery and yep.

Andrew Snair: 32:18

Nice, yeah, we're battery agnostic on the electric.

Matt Weitzel: 32:21

Oh, that's nice of you guys.

Andrew Snair: 32:22

Yeah, y'all are the best. That's amazing. We just Well. The lithium market is changing so quickly. I know the pricing's increasing Right Like the batteries themselves, are a massive chunk of the overall expenditure now For sure.

Andrew Snair: 32:35

When you're talking about a tractor and then you know, every company seems to have their different. Every airliner ground handler seems to have a different approach on who they want to standardize on. So we like picking partners that have great service on the battery side so that we can be confident that we can walk away in one regard from that sale and know that they'll be taken care of on the battery after sales service and making sure that there will always be diagnostics there or telematics and whatnot. But it's definitely a changing market, for sure.

Matt Weitzel: 33:05

I'm glad you brought that up. So if I have a battery supplier that I want to work with exclusively, can I put that into your Avro unit or do I have to go with the battery that you have selected?

Kaden Scott: 33:15

No, we work with your preferred supplier for batteries, but then if I don't have a preferred supplier, you all can help me out 100%, yeah, supplier for batteries, but then if I don't have a preferred supplier, you all can. You all can help me out 100, yeah, and I think, as we have kind of learned from our past experiences like the, we had so much opportunity in the after sales areas like going down every level of our supply chain which has a lot of involvement from our c-suite is like what is the partnership like as far as, like you know, even engines or stuff like how, how easy are they to deal with? Because we want to be support from top to bottom. So we've been matching our level of what we want for after sales with all of our partnerships in the supply chain area, which is, I think, as we've looked at it through that lens, it's really helped us bring that level up.

Matt Weitzel: 33:58

For sure, yeah. And then let's dive in really quickly, because you mentioned telematics. So same kind of question, right? Which is do you all have telematics on your units, like inherently? If so, which units do you have it on? If you don't, can I have you put, if I have a preferred supplier, put it onto your units. So I will let one of the two of you guys answer that.

Andrew Snair: 34:18

Yeah, no, we've got telematics on the Titan series, We've got it on the GPUs and then it's an option on our other equipment. I think where we're going long-term is to actually roll out an extensive platform for telematics and tracking. So we've partnered up with a company and it's in development right now to actually have a platform where our clients can log into and get all that data and have like control over all that data and be able to track each unit and it's a way for us to diagnose remotely but also it's a useful data point for our clients is kind of what I'm saying. So we're going to go in that direction of building that out more.

Andrew Snair: 34:57

It's somewhat, our offering right now is telematics and it's going to be um, we've got access, remote access, to that on the titan series and our clients have access to it, obviously. But we want to build that out and have it kind of a key feature across every product in our portfolio, every powered piece, nice. So that's going to be like a end of quarter four rollout, I think is what we're thinking. Um, okay, yeah, we're in contract, in contract, but we're at least three months out.

Matt Weitzel: 35:23

So we'll be done by the expo. No, no, nope, man, that's sad. Oh well, all right, the expo. What do you bring into the expo? Can you tell? If there's things you can't tell me, that's fine. But you can tell me, like 90%.

Kaden Scott: 35:39

Yep, so we'll have two GPUs battery GPU, electric GPU over a cargo cart or baggage cart of a Titan PT350. And, oh, sorry, and a lithium tractor, baggage tractor, Gotcha.

Matt Weitzel: 35:54

And then are you all indoor or outdoor? I can't remember Indoor Nice.

Kaden Scott: 35:58

Oh, that's big. Oh, the sunburn I got last time was too bad, oh man, we were all. Sunburn I got last time was too bad, oh man.

Matt Weitzel: 36:03

We were all making fun of you behind your back. I mean, it was, yeah, he looked bad. Guys, yeah, oh man, yeah, well, that's awesome. And then belt loaders Do you all have belt loaders? Yeah, yeah, you do, tell me about a belt loader, yeah so we'll talk about the gas belt loaders.

Andrew Snair: 36:24

So here's a little story. Oh, I love stories. Yeah, we were working with a ground handler up in Calgary going back about a year and a half ago and they bought about 12 of our belt loaders and this is a classic example of there are some things on it that just weren't working well, some different components and maybe design features that just didn't match their spec. Anyways, they did this demo, they came back with the feedback and we actually worked with the airport authority on some of the regulations and some of the features, developing those features. But we essentially had to go back into our supply chain and change like probably eight different components on this, on this belt loader, and we made those changes and, like those have had an absolute stellar run since those changes like we haven't gotten one call on parts and service for basically the last 18 months. But what that did is that we actually changed the spec on all of our belt loaders going forward.

Andrew Snair: 37:18

So all that client feedback was captured in that product development. And now the client feedback has come. We've made the changes, it's been proven and like now when we go out and demo a belt loader, it's got all those changes and clients love it. So it's kind of an example of like a kind of like a rough go, like a rough start with like a you know one client, but all that feedback has been captured. In the last like two years we've made those changes and that's kind of what keeps the team at Avro absolutely pumped. It's because we're in real time, we're making these changes and we're moving fast. But that's why the account management team needs to bring the clients along for the journey.

Matt Weitzel: 37:56

I mean, it sounds like the moral of this podcast is listen to your customers.

Andrew Snair: 38:04

A hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely yeah. Our first on our first leadership session end of 2023. We had all these outstanding parts of service issues. We had product quality concerns, and I remember the leadership team at SASC. We were all sitting around the table and they like didn't tolerate at all. Like the GM was put on the spot, like everyone was put on the spot as far as why there was even these issues outstanding, and that's kind of what drove a lot of the change.

Kaden Scott: 38:27

And I think like the SAS car kind of influence with manufacturing stuff from day one and just kind of how their parts and service experience and how they're like I mean, even in maintenance there with all their equipment I mean there's a very, very documented process for how deep you know just keep making sure the stuff is caught up on maintenance that sort of thing. And there's they came hard, I remember, and since then there was definitely quite a few changes even on the management side at Avro, and I was just new there for three months and it was definitely an eye opener.

Andrew Snair: 39:02

Yeah, one of the key things is we basically flatten the structure so everyone is accountable in the company Everyone. We all work together as one team. There's not like a massive chain of command that people have to climb to get feedback to the top. So I think the one thing that's really helped us move fast when we need to.

Matt Weitzel: 39:23

Yeah, I know, when I call Caden about stuff, he listens, you know, and that's important. People want somebody who actually listens, and then the stuff gets done almost immediately. So I will say that I will give Caden credit there, for sure. So what part of your product line really haven't we covered at this point? I think we got bag carts, we goties, we have pushbacks, belt loaders, bag tractors, gpus. What else? Are you guys doing anything else? Or can we not talk about it right now? Or I mean, what are y'all going?

Matt Weitzel: 39:50

after, just like we're having a complete, um you know, gate series.

Andrew Snair: 39:55

Here I mean is that we're after no, so we're strategically focused on below wing ground support equipment. So that's our strategic focus In the future. It's almost like we might be—.

Matt Weitzel: 40:05

Where's my?

Andrew Snair: 40:05

air start. Ah well, we can talk to Simon about that?

Matt Weitzel: 40:09

Where's my air?

Andrew Snair: 40:09

conditioner.

Kaden Scott: 40:11

I was going to say Simon's— we have the air conditioner.

Simone Livraghi: 40:15

He's in development, so we have the air conditioner. Okay, if you want one, we can get one.

Matt Weitzel: 40:21

Okay, so do we have what? 30 ton, 60 ton, Yep 110?

Kaden Scott: 40:27

Yep, yep.

Simone Livraghi: 40:27

We have a 30 ton, we have 60 ton, we have 110. Wow, it can become hybrid. It can be plugged in the power outlet on the wall and you can make it working without switching on the engine. Wow, the wall and you can make it working without switching on the engine.

Matt Weitzel: 40:46

So, wow, it is a sort of you know, asia, that would fit also using side angles or closed places. Yeah, okay, so those are currently in production or those are ready to roll out at any time. What's the time frame look like on those? Yeah, simon's probably ahead of us on this.

Simone Livraghi: 41:01

Yeah, they are in production and we're going to start delivering them by spring next year.

Matt Weitzel: 41:08

Okay.

Simone Livraghi: 41:09

Not earlier than that.

Matt Weitzel: 41:11

Nice, all right, look at that. I got something out of you guys, at least you know. So I knew I'd break them down to the listeners so nice.

Kaden Scott: 41:23

So another quick story, like this week some guy called me a customer, very, very good customer, and said, like I'm getting an invoice for the parts, which is no problem because, like the day we box the parts and put them on the shelf for the courier to pick them up, we confirm it, so the invoice will go the next morning. But he said the issue is I'm also the same day getting a follow-up saying you know, have I received all the parts and have a? You know like, can you please confirm the packing slip and everything's correct? And he said like, like how can you expect me to do this? But it's, you know, it might take three, four days to come or whatever. And so it's like that makes I mean, yeah, that's, you can't expect that.

Kaden Scott: 41:59

So within five minutes we had changed our process to seven days, first follow up and receiving, and on, you know, making sure they got all the stuff. And I called him back and he was just pumped that like within he called, said it was an issue and we rewrote our process, just changed that little thing. And he was like, well, that's awesome, thank you very much.

Matt Weitzel: 42:17

Yeah, like I said, the one thing I'll give you credit for is you're all over it. You know, when I bring something forward, like it just doesn't just go and nothing happens, right, like you all always make you know, something happens, yep.

Kaden Scott: 42:30

Right and I think it's a testament. Like the whole team, as Andrew spoke about flattening the structure and focusing more on execution than just. You know, the whole hierarchy stuff't work. There's too much red tape.

Andrew Snair: 42:43

Yeah, yeah, so everyone is involved in the details, so everyone knows actually how to do make the changes, how to do the things that need to get done, and so that's kind of like the key difference, because before, when we had so many layers, there was like disconnect between actually how do you do something that maybe, like an account manager is doing or you know someone else is doing on the team like how do you actually make that change? And if you're disconnected from the details, then it's actually hard to drive that change and make sure it's done right, and so that's kind of I think that's been helpful just to get everyone working on the same team in the details. Everyone knows what's happening, everyone knows the process and how to fix things.

Matt Weitzel: 43:23

Yeah, I like it. When am I going to get a tour of the the facility in Minnesota? Is it ready? Is it tour ready or are we going to wait for a new facility?

Andrew Snair: 43:30

Probably.

Matt Weitzel: 43:30

January, january yeah.

Kaden Scott: 43:32

Yeah, that's when the next one's going to be set up. Okay, yep.

Matt Weitzel: 43:36

And they're probably-. See, I'm just slowly but surely, I'm pulling the string, guys.

Andrew Snair: 43:39

Yeah, it's going to be January because we've got client commitments for delivery out of that facility in quarter two next year.

Matt Weitzel: 43:48

So will that be like the flagship facility kind of the one in January?

Kaden Scott: 43:52

I think so, like for the baggage tractors. I mean, we already have a couple hundred units that are booked, that we have dates we have to hit, okay. So it's kind of a yeah, we have no option.

Matt Weitzel: 44:02

So are you spending a lot of time in Minnesota recently?

Kaden Scott: 44:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've spent a lot of time in Minnesota, and then Simon will. He's been spending a lot of time traveling and it's no, it's exciting. Where do you live right now? Caden In Oxbow, saskatchewan. So it's a town, 1,200 people. Wow, okay, and that is where. So it's actually 15 miles from the US border. I'm a US citizen, as my mom's, from Michigan, but in that town, that is where Saskark was started. Oh, okay, so that's kind of why the 1,200 people.

Matt Weitzel: 44:38

That's a smaller town than I grew up, in which I didn't. Yeah, that's crazy man.

Andrew Snair: 44:42

Avro picked it strategically. It's like if we pick a small enough town, we can own the town Exactly.

Matt Weitzel: 44:48

Right. Yeah, we're going to start an Avro town next. We have to play our cards, right.

Kaden Scott: 44:52

Yeah, exactly.

Matt Weitzel: 44:53

That's hilarious.

Kaden Scott: 44:55

What about you, Matt? Where did you?

Matt Weitzel: 45:02

Yeah, so I grew up in Kentucky. Took me a while to drop the accent. I've been working on that ever since I got out of college. I'm like I got to get rid of this thing because I sound like a redneck, but not that rednecks are bad.

Matt Weitzel: 45:07

We're not saying anything bad about rednecks I love them because I am one, but I had to drop the accent for the podcast, right. But I think my town had 7,000 people growing up, but my graduating high school class had 43 people in it. Okay, so, but I think only 38 graduated, you know. But I mean that's beside the point, but, but I went to a very, very small school, so, but you know, I probably had more, I probably had less people in my graduating class than you did, I would imagine. Right.

Kaden Scott: 45:37

Yeah, Well, I was. I was the only one.

Matt Weitzel: 45:40

You were the only one. Yeah, oh, my gosh, never mind. Okay, I thought I might have a beat on that one at least.

Kaden Scott: 45:45

The school I went to when I graduated, there was 15 people in the whole school. What?

Matt Weitzel: 45:52

That's crazy.

Kaden Scott: 45:54

Well, what was the story about you? Because you were a sprinter right.

Matt Weitzel: 45:57

Yeah, I was a sprinter.

Kaden Scott: 45:58

yeah, yeah, and with that whole car. There was that car theft in that rental car.

Matt Weitzel: 46:24

Oh yeah, oh, that's it. That is a good story, but anyway. So I didn't ever think it would come into use in my professional life and I don't know why I told you this story, but it's funny that I did so. I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the first day on my job and listeners of the podcast will know that I worked for Enterprise because that's how I met Brad Compton, that's how I got into the industry. But anyway, let's go back to day one. Day one. I didn't know the systems yet. You have to learn how to use the computer system and everything. Well, I didn't know how to do that.

Matt Weitzel: 46:52

So they're like hey, listen, do you want to go out on a repo? And I'm like no way I get to go on a repo. And they're like yeah, so a repo is like go get a car that the person has stopped paying on. They defaulted on it.

Matt Weitzel: 47:05

So I hop in the car with the manager and we drive over to this guy's house and she stops a couple houses away and she says so that's the car sitting in the driveway, we have the extra key and what you're going to do is you're going to get out of this car and run as fast as you can get in the car and drive off.

Matt Weitzel: 47:28

So, uh, I was like you know, I mean, it was like a superhero, you know, and uh, so anyway. So she pulls up and, uh, I grabbed the keys and I sprint and as I'm sprinting towards the car, a guy comes out of this, like you know, completely dilapidated house in a wife beater, and starts screaming and, you know, yelling at me and I'm like, oh my God, and I hop in the car and I sped off, but see that my speed, if I would have been any slower, the guy would have got me. You know what I mean. Like this was his only mode of transportation, so, anyway, so that's my story, and we usually end these podcasts with GSE stories. So this is not necessarily a GSE story, but at least the listeners get that story. So, caden, thanks for bringing that up.

Andrew Snair: 48:21

That's a fantastic story.

Matt Weitzel: 48:22

Oh, thanks.

Andrew Snair: 48:23

Yeah, that's like. That's like definitely a case study on why it's definitely a case. You know why you should be focused on sprinting rather than like long distance. Yeah, it's like where in life will you ever use long distance? Never, Exactly Right.

Matt Weitzel: 48:35

Yeah, exactly, and my wife was a marathon runner and when we met I told her you know, I'm a runner right and what. I didn't specify that I was actually a sprinter because I'm not a runner right. Like I went out for a cross country and I lasted one practice and I was like I'm out of here, like this is ridiculous. You know I can't run the long distances, so yeah. So, caden, what is your? What is your GSE story?

Kaden Scott: 49:01

do you have? A good one for us well, this is kind of a before my GSE. You know, before I was involved with GSE. But what I was thinking is, before I worked at Saskirk I was a worked for a company called Sunset Concrete for probably eight months. So I was a labor, you know, cutting rebar, driving the skids here, doing all that stuff, and my, the boss there was a very old school. He would smack you around the tops if you needed to get stuff done. I mean not physically.

Matt Weitzel: 49:29

Yeah, okay, all right. I was like oh, is this a smack? You? That's all right. Just a little one, no, just yeah.

Kaden Scott: 49:35

But I was in the skid steer and I was backing up and I lifted the bucket and turned around and you know, went out and he came up to the window and he said he said, do you have neck problems? And I said, you know, not to my knowledge. I mean, it feels like it's working pretty good. He said from now on you back up, you turn your head and back up. It was just one thing. From that site I've taken a lot of note from that guy just how it's a long-lasting impression of how involved in the detail that guy was and his work. He was a guy that everyone calls him and I think that that's just you know, kind of, as Andrew said, into the detail that we're involved in. Like it's just kind of the. You know you have to get involved in the detail. If you can't get the small things right, you're not going to get the big things right.

Matt Weitzel: 50:22

Anyways, that's kind of a dude. I love that. Yeah, intro yeah, no, I like that I've brought. I like how you tied it in I.

Kaden Scott: 50:25

Yeah, I appreciate that yeah, but yeah, it's just something that brought from that that I have a lot of respect for that man and yeah yeah, and now you're, you're still thinking about that today.

Matt Weitzel: 50:34

Yeah, so it must have meant something to you.

Andrew Snair: 50:36

So all right, andrew, you're up yeah, I don't really have a good gse story. I mean, the whole journey at avro has been my gse story. Yeah, um, like there hasn't been one single defining.

Andrew Snair: 50:47

I know experience like like I haven't repoed a car oh, like a gse tractor or anything like that so, um, but yeah, I, I definitely feel like the um. My experience at avro I've only been there two years, but just that, that experience of starting with something and having to make continuous improvement and then seeing the progress has just been awesome. It's been very rewarding and I think it's been rewarding for the team as well.

Matt Weitzel: 51:12

Yeah, that's good, simon, I think you're up next. You got a good GSC story for us.

Simone Livraghi: 51:17

Oh, I have 20 years of GSC stories, you need to just pick one. Oh, I have 20 years of GSE stories, you need to just pick one. So let's say that in my journey, my good GSE story is that in my previous employment at Bliss Fox, I have two senior persons in the organization that have been in the industry One just retired three or four years ago, that working in the GSE industry since 1984. So they transmit to me really a huge technical background, that learning on the field, learning on the books and learning really how to build good and quality GSE equipment. And I believe this is my good story, because this kind of experience and background you're not getting it so easy today, especially working on the field, and I need to say thank you to them. Maybe I can mention their name One is Graham, he just retired a few years ago, and one is Steve, that's still in this industry. That's my good story.

Matt Weitzel: 52:40

Yeah. No, that's a great story. That's yeah. Great story, that's yeah. So it's all. It's all about the work man, you know what I mean and putting in the work, and you guys are definitely, definitely doing that at avro. You know, like I said, the moral of the podcast listen to the customer and um, and building good equipment, you know. So what, what else do we? What else do we? Did I miss anything? That's what I always ask at the end of these things. I feel like we've done a pretty good job covering the product line. I think you all done a great job of of kind of explaining your strategy, and I'm trying not to divulge too much to matt, but um, but in the end, I got some stuff out of you.

Kaden Scott: 53:14

So uh, did I miss anything though caden no, I, I don't think. So. Yeah, no, I mean, thank you very much, matt, for having us on, and this is great. I was talking to Andrew on the way about. We've listened to a lot of these podcasts and one of our directors, probably seven months ago, said you need to get on that thing. And here we are. So, no, thank you very much.

Andrew Snair: 53:33

No, thank you, Matt, really appreciate it.

Matt Weitzel: 53:36

Yeah, no, this has been great. I always enjoy talking to you guys and I appreciate the partnership. And, yeah, we look forward to getting more Avro into our fleet and also looking forward to seeing you guys in Las Vegas here very, very soon, absolutely, yeah, we're excited. Oh wait, last question here Do you all have any good like little tchotchkes or anything you're going to be handing out at the booth, anything that people should come by and grab?

Andrew Snair: 54:01

All I think yeah, quite a few things, yeah quite a few things, yeah, yeah and some giveaways and yeah, I've got it.

Matt Weitzel: 54:07

I've got an avro backpack.

Andrew Snair: 54:08

That that's killer, you know so um, so I appreciate that that's gone through like another level of r&d since we gave that I have the latest one here.

Kaden Scott: 54:17

Oh okay, never mind guys listeners.

Matt Weitzel: 54:18

I'm getting a new one, so we listened to our customer.

Kaden Scott: 54:21

They said ah, I like this. Like you know, it's a great backpack, but there's a few things.

Matt Weitzel: 54:25

Okay, here we are All right. Well, I'm about to get the new one, so I'm going to let everybody go because I'm excited now. So thank you all so much for listening to the GSE podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the GSE podcast. We hope you found it informative and engaging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your colleagues and peers in the ground support equipment community. Your support is invaluable to us. We'd appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast. Your feedback not only encourages us, but also helps expand our reach within the GSE community. Keep an eye out for more episodes as we continue to explore the dynamic world of ground operations, bringing you the latest trends, insights and stories from the industry. Thank you for listening to the GSE Podcast. Until we meet again, stay grounded and keep pushing forward.