A year of changes, including new ownership, only the second layoff in the company’s history, and planned updates in diesel chassis, is highlighted by a celebration of American Emergency Vehicles’ 20th anniversary this Saturday with an open house at the Jefferson plant.

AEV will host plant tours and offer music from Creek Junction, food and children’s activities from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 31. The plant is located on Don Walters Road, off NC 16 in East Jefferson.

Since its inception, AEV has consistently been one of the top performing companies not only in the county but also in the industry, earning the state’s highest award for safety in 2008 as well as the number one manufacturing spot in the industry in 2008. AEV was the county’s first STAR-rated manufacturing facility. The STAR rating means incident rates are going down for a company, and for three consecutive years the company has had injury incident rates below 50 percent of the national rates for industries in the same North American industrial classification. AEV helped United Chemi-Con achieve a STAR rating this year.

In March there were no plans for a layoff, but in April it happened when a deterioration in order volume led to AEV placing 18 of its 343 workers on permanent layoff, a move President/CEO Mark Van Arnam was hoping to avoid.

The layoff followed a purchase earlier this year by a new holding company, a leading provider of emergency and rescues vehicles with manufacturing facilities in Ohio, North Carolina and California.

American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV, L.P. (AIP) of New York announced in February that it had acquired Horton Emergency Vehicles, American Emergency Vehicles, and Leader Emergency Vehicles through the purchase of Halcore Group, Inc. Van Arnam said AEV has been owned by holding companies – private equity groups – for a number of years and that AIP is one of the strongest of those.

Van Arnam also said that AEV is the strongest performing member of the Company in output and efficiency. The manufacturer made a privately financed commitment in excess of $30 million by purchasing 1,000 current model diesel chassis for its line to keep up with manufacturing until the new chassis, with reduced emissions requirements, were ready.

AEV opened in 1990 on Radio Hill in West Jefferson, constructed a 73,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at the current site on Don Walters Road in 1996, and added a 28,000 square foot paint shed in 2005.