Jason Industrial business activities have been tempered in 2024 compared to last year, Oh said, as various industry segments have shown flat growth against 2023. "Much of the industry was focused on tighter working capital control and cautious capital expenditures," he said.
"We anticipate a soft landing in Q4 and anticipate a majority of the industry segments returning to growth patterns in 2025," he said.
Rather than sitting still to wait out the stagnant business period, both Jason and Megadyne are continuing their long-term plans that target company growth by filling in segments it hasn't served before, and also identify areas where it can add value by expanding what the firms can supply within a variety of product systems.
These efforts date back to when Oh joined Ammega in 2021. He had a long history with Gates Corp., where he served roughly two decades during two separate tenures, so he was familiar with the lay of the land in both the belting and hose sectors.
"I had a dream when I came on board in 2021 that there is significant white space in our market that is not being filled by legacy manufacturing companies where I believe we are able to contribute significantly," Oh told Rubber News.
And he didn't dream small. Instead, he put forth the goal for the businesses to double their sales. "That is a sentiment to say that there is significant room to grow, and there is available space for us to service."
The Ammega team leaned even further into this goal, naming Pence as the newly created director of business development for both the Jason and Megadyne businesses.
Oh said this takes Pence out of the rigors of the day-to-day sales activities, so the two of them can partner to see where they want to put the firm's investments in time, effort and capital to develop the next set of growth within the business.
"We believe the market is about to change, and exploration will take effect," Oh said. And given the portfolios it has put together on the belting and hose sides of the business, the official said the Ammega businesses are primed to be able to fill the space that larger firms can't service in a timely fashion.
"Because we are able to move quickly with regards to our goods and money investments, we are able to be faster in being able to meet the demands and changing landscape of our business," Oh said.
Pence said this involved looking more closely at their customer base and seeing what more they can provide.
"Because of our many years in business, we're connected to just about every distributor customer," he said. "But we're not leveraging all of our products, all of our capabilities.
"... At the same time, we're going to bring new products to market for these white spaces where we're not participating in today. We just introduced some new products in the logistics area that are brand new for us, and that brings a whole new set of customers."
With Pence's new business development role, Oh said there is room to explore, finding different ways to put together complementary product lines to create new systems. It could be belts and pulleys on the power transmission side, or hose, couplings and accessories in fluid power.
"There is technical knowledge required to even buy things," Oh said. "Technical knowledge for you to figure how and when it's going to fail. Technical reasons why you need to do something. So when you are there you are not only replacing your part, but the neighboring part is also to be serviced in order for that whole system to work.
"So I think there is an area where we are able to support our distribution partners to configure things that are needed together in order for our value to come out."
Over the three years he's been with Ammega, Oh said he's had the chance to understand where the market needs are and how his firm can participate with the solutions by focusing on customer experience and solutions.
He's now opening up his second set of three-year plans to hone in on further realizing the unit's growth targets.
"I am optimistic on what I have observed in the beginning with regards to the opportunities the industry has for us to grow, the anomalies seen from a pandemic, and the reality of the new normal that it creates is never the same normal that it was before," Oh said. "But that new normal that we face and the way manufacturing is being taken here in the U.S. is truly supporting our initiatives, and I believe that our strategy and our mission vision is still valid and is still resonating with our customers."