Air Innovations has grown from a small local manufacturer into a global business, selling its products in 74 countries organizations. Some of its clients include NASA, Blue Origin and SpaceX.
By Stefan Yablonski
Air Innovations in North Syracuse hopes to add more employees and possibly even expand its facility in the near future.
The company is a global leader in designing and building environmental process control systems for applications that can’t be addressed with standard HVAC equipment, according to Michael Wetzel, president and CEO.
“We customize solutions for temperature, humidity, filtration and pressurization, with additional capabilities in direct-expansion, chilled-water and thermoelectric technologies. Our business now is entirely focused on specialty or niche markets.”
Air Innovations celebrated its 40th anniversary on Sept. 18, marking four decades of doing business, manufacturing products and growing in Central New York.
In the beginning
“A guy by the name of Jim Kelley started the business [known as Floratech] in 1986. It was focused on refrigerated display cases for supermarket fresh flowers,” Wetzel said. “My father [Larry] started Clean Room Technology in the early 1980s, then sold that to a French company called Clestra Cleanroom.
“My father and I bought Floratech in 1996 — 30 years ago, 10 years after it was started. Then in 1999, Floratech bought a portion of Clestra and their building. At that point everything was still called Floratech. But, as that was not reflective of the diversity of the business, we rebranded as Air Innovations in 2001.”
The company rebranded to pursue a strategy of diversification in specialty HVAC systems. Wetzel explained that since then, it has become a trusted global partner, earning the President’s “E” Award for Exports and securing contracts in the most demanding fields, including aerospace, defense and semiconductor manufacturing.
Air Innovations has grown from a small local manufacturer into a global business, selling nearly 70,000 units in 74 countries and territories and developing custom environmental control systems for companies and organizations including NASA, Blue Origin and SpaceX.
“We work with all the big names you ever heard of and some you never heard of,” Wetzel added.
The Wetzels sold the business two years ago to Altus Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on control investments in lower middle-market, niche manufacturing companies in North America.
Founded in 2003, Altus Capital Partners’ headquarters is in Wilton, Connecticut, with an additional office in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
“They are an equity firm. Both my father and I both maintain a small minority share. I am going to continue to be involved. I call myself a part-time CEO. I will continue that role for the foreseeable future; I don’t see any change there.”
Building to the future
“We are at 58 employees right now, which is a little bit down. We had a high of 70. That moves along with the activity we have,” Wetzel said. “We’ll start ramping up here in the fourth quarter into next year. More than 20% of our employees have been with the company for more than a decade.
“I am fairly certain that sometime in the next several years we are going to have to enlarge the footprint of our facility and for sure we are going to have to add employees. We already are. We are probably going to have to add five or six people next year. We are always in the market for HVAC technicians; we always need those.”
Air Innovations will remain in Central New York, with its current workforce staying in place, he added.
“I believe the primary driver of our success over time is the diversity of our business which is a direct result of our willingness to tackle new challenges,” Wetzel said.
