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Issue link: https://groundsupportworldwide.epubxp.com/i/643581
12 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE FEBRUARY 2016 COVER STORY in December. "So Eagles will be Eagles, and Tronairs will be Tronairs. It's possible that the JetPorter, which is a Tronair product, will get branded under the Eagle brand soon, and create vehicle division." In addition, there have been no redundancy layoffs at Eagle and the Tronair employee base has grown approximately 30 percent with the addition of the Eagle brand and team. "The sales side, though, is a full court press," Kaplan says of their integration process. Two months later, Ground Support World- wide went to Michigan and to Ohio to check in on one of the most impactful acquisitions in recent industry memory. The Power of Positivity The plan in December was to utilize the sales infrastructure from Tronair, which Iddon has built over the past two years, to include the existing Eagle product line and integrate the two GSE portfolios. Just a week before our visit, and just over a month since the ink dried on the sale, the Eagle crew saw frsthand the sales support upgrade they were being accepted into. The conference room at Eagle's headquarters was flled with 18 Tronair salespeople champing at the bit to get Eagles into hangars and onto ramps worldwide. Additionally, Tronair's JetPorter product manager, Justin Akinleye, has already been promoted to product manager for both the Jet- Porter and Eagle product lines. The move comes as little surprise since Akinleye spent more than seven years at Eagle, fn- ishing as director of global operations, before arriving at Tronair. The Eagle purchase was a homecoming of sorts for the former Marine. "We have ISO and obviously we're CE approved, and those are consistent quality programs," Akinleye says of the advance- ment during his time at Eagle. "But now the Morgans having sold it to Tronair, we can now go to another level. That's with all that other support." Part of the sales meeting, according to Kaplan, was to bring home the fact that Eagle was truly being accepted into the Tronair team. This wasn't going to be an assimilation, it was truly an integration. "They were walking in this room and their mouths were dropping because they're used to having two, maybe three people selling the product," Kaplan says. "They walk into a room of 18 people." The existing Eagle team is excited about the additional sales support. "The sales force alone on Friday was amazing," Adam Dudek, production manager at Eagle, says. "I met so many people, I couldn't remember all their names, but they were from everywhere. That just, right there, says what's going to happen." Dudek, who has been with Eagle for more than 25 years, had the same reservations any employee has when the company they work for is sold. "I've been through it a couple of times," Dudek says. "I was okay with it. It's always a little nerve-wracking because you don't know exactly what's happening, but after meeting with the guys and stuff like that, I couldn't be more excited."