• Floratech

• CleanroomSystems

• WineGuardian

• OEMandCustomProducts

Late Winter 2006

Floratech

How do floral departments find their “niche”?Successful merchandisers set themselves apart from their competition on several levels, not the least of which is pro-viding a pleasant shopping experience for their customers. By their nature, floral departments placed in the front of the store can contribute dramatically to the desired welcom-ing atmosphere. Flowers prompt smiles and good feelings in most people. Research has found when people relax and enjoy their shopping experience, they tend to stay longer and buy more. The Floratech division of Air Innovations has partnered with many companies over the years to build floral depart-ments based on customer specifications. Our engineers and sales department work on a one-on-one basis to help define your niche and help differentiate your department from the competition. Our ultimate goal is to encourage your customers to smile, stay awhile, and fill up those shopping baskets!

The Cool Spot is the perfect choice for point-of-purchase merchandising and can be easily moved to other locations in the store as seasonal trends or store traffic demand.

In 2004, the New York Indoor Environmental Quality Center (NYIEQ) awarded Air Innovations a $50,000 grant to work with the Center for Emergency Preparedness at the SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse to develop and test a portable and cost-effective HVAC system that quickly con-verts a standard hospital patient room into an isolation room. Most hospitals have only a few isolation rooms out of their hundreds of patient rooms. In the event of a pandemic or other disaster, the need to isolate the ensuing surge of patients is currently beyond the capacity of most facilities. The unit we developed, IsolationAir, proved to exceed the guidelines for isolation facilities established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Institute of Architects, namely in air changes and pressure control levels. IsolationAir units quickly convert any room to either negative or positive pressure, helping to either contain the spread of infectious diseases or protect immuno-suppressed patients against outside contaminants. We are currently setting up additional equipment trials in a variety of locations throughout the Northeast, and are in the process of establishing sales distribution systems. The unit will be available for the mass market by mid-2006. Based on needs assessment, we expect IsolationAir to be a major product line by 2010, adding approximately 8–10 people to Air Innovations in various capacities. Keep track of IsolationAir’s latest developments by visiting www.airinnovations.com/isolationair.asp.

Above: Air Innovations chairman Larry Wetzel presented the IsolationAir prototype at the 2005 Syracuse Center of Excellence Symposium on Environmental and Energy Systems.

IsolationAir, AI’s newest product, gears up for marketing effort

Wine Guardian

The Wine Guardian division debuted in the winter catalog of The Wine Enthusiast, the largest wine catalog house in the United States. This marks the first time that Wine Guardian has entered the retail market. The division has also teamed up with Vigilant, a New England distributor known for its high-end wine cellar racking. Vigilant has begun marketing the Wine Guardian line to its customer list.

Diverse needs: real solutionsThe past year brought several new and interesting challenges to the Air Innovations team. Two products requiring specialized solutions recent-ly entered the fabrication stage in the AI manufactur-ing facility. On the face of it, the products are very differ-ent from each other, espe-cially considering their size. The Shop24—at six tons the largest single piece ever to be built on our factory floor—dwarfs the compact Moses Miracle Flower Wall. But both products depended

on the creative refrigeration abilities of the engineering department to come to the final solution.

Shop24VTL, a worldwide New Zealand-based franchise vending business, ap-proached Air Innovations to help it start a manufactur-ing operation in the United States for Shop24, a highly successful robotic vending machine currently built solely in Belgium and distributed in Europe. First customers for the U.S.-made machines are two

AI was a perfect fit to develop the product, which requires an array of techno-logic features. These includ-ed a complex temperature control, as the vending ma-chine sits independently out-doors, sophisticated robot-ics, and advanced computer and data system controls. The added national ben-efit of the VTL contract? By bringing Shop24 to the U.S. for production, AI helps reverse the global trend of manufacturing relocating overseas. “What we are planning to do with this product is to source all the components

Shop24, the largest product built to date in the AI factory, slides through the overhead doors on its way to delivery at Morrisville State College.

New York educational in-stitutions, Morrisville State College in Morrisville and Monroe Community College in Rochester. Shop24 is referred to as an automated conve-nience “store,” as it pro-vides 24-hour access to 200 items, which can be easily switched on demand. The machine accepts cash, credit cards or student IDs. Shop24’s data systems provide real-time tracking of sales and cash transactions from a remote location, pro-viding information on stock levels to the food distribu-tion vendor.

Employee WatchAir Innovations welcomes two new employees!

News from the manufacturing floorAir Innovations initiated a program in late 2005 to proudly label all its products “Made in the USA.” This campaign is particularly appropri-ate as AI outsources its compo-nents and subassemblies from American companies, the majority of them in the Central New York region. In addition, outsourcing subassemblies helps reduce labor and cut costs in the factory. This results in bet-ter, competitive pricing for customers. Also, in keeping with the lean manufacturing princi-ples followed at the compa-ny, year-end saw a vigorous clean-up in the shop as well as a dismantling of the office library that had become a repository for hundreds of outdated resource materials and journals, most of which are now found online.

Greg Hart has been appointed to the position of service manager for all divisions, fielding phone calls and questions 24/7 on service, parts and warranties.

Internships are currently available in

engineering, marketing and

manufacturing. Apply through the

Human Resources office at hr@airinnovations.com

Ruth Galutz is the friendly face and voice that greets the public in her position as receptionist. Ruth was referred to us by material manager Johnna Carney.

through American compa-nies,” said Mike Wetzel, AI president. “We want to develop technology and manufacturing solutions that remain in the U.S.”

Moses Miracle Flower Wall Flora Trends contacted the Floratech division to devise a specially designed mer-chandiser compatible with its unique packaging system, the Moses Miracle™. The Moses Miracle system was invented as a means of packing flowers in water at the South American growers, and keeping the same pack-aging through the point of purchase. The system elimi-nates many problems, most notably the practice of ship-

the lower part of the bouquet stems, requires a compatible racking system in the cooler to display the flowers in their unusual container to their best advantage. Floratech designed the Moses Miracle Flower Wall from the ground up, using a patent pending Lexan® frame rack that protects stems and can be adjusted according to the amount and type of flowers in the cooler.

ping flowers in dry boxes in which they are deprived of water until they reach their destination. The receiving stores benefit not only from fresher flowers, but also in cost and labor savings as they no longer have to re-cut and process flower stems, clean and fill buckets, and clean up drips and spills. The packaging, which resembles a small balloon filled with water fastened to

One of our Flower Wall customers, Kabloom, a national floral distributor, uses the system exclusively for transporting its flowers. Kabloom is interested in the Flower Wall cooler for its satellite stores. Production of the Flower Wall started in late January, after an intensive testing program of the new design in the AI manufacturing facility.

Check out

www.airinnovations.com

for job opportunities

at Air Innovations

Floratech® FloratechEurope™

AdvancAir® HEPAir®

Wine Guardian® IsolationAir™

For more information on Air Innovations

or its divisions, please visit us online

or request a brochure at

www.AirInnovations.com

or call us at 1-800-825-3268

7000 Performance DriveNorth Syracuse, NY 13212

Floratech products now available in EuropeThe Floratech division has launched a partnership with Klinge Corporation, a multinational firm headquartered in Denmark that has specialized in transport refrigeration for more than 25 years. Marketing for the new venture, Flora-techEurope, is led by Jan Hallum Hansen in Copenhagen. Currently, FloratechEurope sells Low Profile and Checkstand units to supermarkets, mass market retailers, convenience stores and garden centers. These products, shipped directly from our Syracuse facility to customers, have been specially adapted for international use, both with regard to perfor-mance and merchandising options. FloratechEurope will handle installation, applications engineering and service on the units. FloratechEurope’s new website, www.floratecheurope.com is translated into three languages and includes a calculation floral managers can use to determine the FloratechEurope product best suited for their sales applica-tion. FloratechEurope also will be exhibiting at the Interna-tional Horticulture Fair in Amsterdam in November. For more information on international sales, contact Cheryl Gressani, AI’s director of business development, at 800-535-3268, extension 7482 or cgressani@airinnovations.com.

Jan Hallum Hansen, right, FloratechEurope’s marketing manager, joined AI president Mike Wetzel, left, and engineering director Donn Dixon at the 2005 SuperFloral show in Houston. They are standing in front of the Wall of Color, which can be merchandised for bouquets or arrangements.

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