March

Amsoil President A.J. Amatuzio

Every company has a unique personality, a character and culture all its own that usually reflects the founder or owner’s ideals and values. AMSOIL INC. is no exception. Everything about this company reflects what I believe important and necessary for a high quality company to be.

I was born and raised in a close-knit Italian neighborhood during the depression. My father died when I was sixteen, leaving my mother to raise five children. I knew how hard things were for her so I became totally self-sufficient at a very early age. I learned early the importance of being able to earn money. It’s a lesson that I never forgot and when the Multi-Level Marketing earning opportunity was introduced to me, I knew it was right for me and my company.

Before starting this company, I spent twenty eight years in the military, retiring as a Lt. Colonel and Squadron Commander in the Air National Guard. I thrived in the military. I readily accepted the responsibilities and challenges of leadership. There are many parallels to the military in running a company. Like a commander, an owner needs to give clear direction as to what needs to be done and how best to accomplish it. That’s not to say there are not many people making important contributions, but there has to be someone clearly in charge, just like in the military.

When someone starts a new company and risks everything to its success, they better be sure they have a better mousetrap. I have always been driven to be the best. I would never have started this company with a second rate product because doing so would have gone against my nature. There was no doubt in my mind that our first AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil was superior to anything and everything on the market at that time. Armed with that knowledge and a determination to succeed, I made the commitment of a lifetime and have never regretted it.

Our product was way ahead of its time. So much so that it proved very difficult for me to sell it in retail stores. It took me a while, and a second mortgage on my home, to realize there had to be a better way. There have been many milestones in the success of this company.

Developing and introducing the first synthetic motor oil was definitely the most important, but the second biggest milestone was when Shirley Green and I met and hammered out our first AMSOIL Marketing Plan. I liked the MLM concept from the start. It fit our products and it fit our unique marketing challenges to a tee. Little did I know then how perfect it would turn out to be.

There have been many, many milestones since then. Buying the AMSOIL Building, our first in-house lab, many new products that have been firsts, numerous plant expansions, some tough lawsuits, our tenth anniversary convention, our twenty-five year convention, and soon we’ll be celebrating thirty years in business.

When you visit AMSOIL, you will see my signature on just about everything about the company. You will see the AMSOIL block (yes, we own a city block) clean and well kept. The sidewalks are swept in the summer and shoveled in the winter. The buildings are some of the best looking in town, inside and out, newly remodeled and attractively decorated. We are complimented frequently on their appearance.

The people working in these pleasant surroundings are dressed in business attire, looking like the professionals they are. Our employees take pride in the way they look and in the company the work for. And I have heard from so many people outside of AMSOIL that you can always tell AMSOIL employees during lunch hours and after work by how professional they look. Doing that one thing creates an image that we are a first class organization, and that’s exactly the point of my insisting on a dress code in this company.

If you visit our plant, you’ll find a modern, high production facility that is clean and well kept. It looks like a place where high quality products are made and that’s exactly what it is. It houses not only state-of-the-art production equipment, but as modern and well staffed a lab as can be found in any lubricant blending plant in the world. Our finished goods warehouse is impressive, with well decorated, colorful cartons of product stacked in long rows as far as the eye can see.

The grounds around the plant, which we recently purchased, have been landscaped and sodded. The new tank farm, which was designed and constructed by my son, Alan, was part of our latest plant expansion. They stand tall painted in AMSOIL blue with large AMSOIL decals.

So what is the personality of AMSOIL? We are committed to excellence, passionate about quality, and determined to provide our Dealers with the most outstanding opportunities available in this industry. We do that by producing superior products, delivering excellent Dealer services, and developing outstanding marketing tools for our Dealers. Attention is paid to detail everywhere at AMSOIL, because even if nobody else notices, I do.