A&A Safety: The best kind of corporate citizen

What started as a home business in Bill Luttmer’s garage has grown into a traffic control business that employs about 150 personnel in Dayton, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.

“My dad started out making simple barricades on a sawhorse in the garage,” said Tom Luttmer, president of A&A Safety Inc., from his home base in Union Township. “We had eight kids. Three of us are boys and we all worked with dad in the garage.”

What is a traffic control business?

“We cater to a niche market,” Luttmer said. “We provide anything needed by government agencies and contractors for the purpose of traffic control.”

A closer look shows the company long ago expanded from barricades to cones, barrels, signs, road-striping, and concrete barrier walls. Light towers, message boards, Stanley hydraulic tools, and traffic control lights, as well as items like helmets, vests, rain jackets and mud boots, are just some of the items the company supplies. It also converts cars right off the factory line into police cruisers by outfitting them with lights, sirens and radios.

“It’s a one-stop shop,” Luttmer said.

The company long-since outgrew the garage and made Union Township its corporate home in 1993. They built on an empty lot that started out as 5 acres and now comprises four buildings on roughly 12 acres. Luttmer said their physical growth follows their business plan of becoming a true partner to their clients.

“For our clients, particularly for local government, we are a cost savings,” he said. “Since we have what they need here, they can keep their inventory down. They don’t have to have sign shops. All of that gives local government more flexibility without having to really do without.”

The company still operates as a family-owned business, which also includes his brother, Tom, as vice-president, and their mother, Ruth, as chief executive officer. The focus today, as it has always been, is customer satisfaction.

“We have to be very time-sensitive,” Luttmer explained.

Sudden road changes, from accidents to unexpected repairs, can demand immediate reaction, but Luttmer said his company can respond as needed.

“Just about everybody in our company is cross-trained and can jump in at a moment’s notice,” Luttmer said. “After all, we all work for the same company.”

Luttmer said he has seen the township grow.

“You can see the evolutionary change,” he said. “I have seen the growth straining at the door. And the standards (of the township) are growing with that change. Everybody has to be creative about being able to get to the next step and being fiscally responsible while doing that. Union Township has done that.”

Just as Luttmer sees the township as keeping pace, Police Chief Terry Zinser said A&A Safety does its part, too.

“They do a lot for the community,” Zinser said. “Last year, we had a lot of rains and floods and there was a fatal accident. They were there in no time with signs to help us out. They always respond immediately.”

Luttmer said he has been through the Union Township Citizens’ Police Academy because “ … the police department wanted business to understand how government works. I thought it was a great program.”

A&A Safety does more than just government work. They will make signs and provide other services to individuals.

“We always work with the general public,” Luttmer said. “We will do ‘for sale’ signs and private lane signs, for instance. The folks in the sign shop like being creative.”

To learn more about A&A Safety, give them a call at 943-6100, or visit their Internet site at www.aasafetyinc.com.