Cable niche allows ADDvantage Technologies to dial up success

BROKEN ARROW — It was like switching from basic cable to the top-tier channel package.

Despite a 2.1-percent dip in revenues, cable television equipment distributor ADDvantage Technologies Group jumped from No. 37 to No. 9 on the Oklahoma Inc. list of the state's top publicly traded companies. The rankings were based on a year's worth of data ending June 30.

The recession hit the company's customers in the United States and Latin America from top to bottom, "countries, companies and households,” David Chymiak, chairman, and Ken Chymiak, president and CEO, said in the company's 2009 annual report.

The Broken Arrow company, which has subsidiaries in eight other cities, still saw profits and positive cash flow, met debt obligations, paid down its line of credit and, last year, purchased 200,000-plus shares of its common stock in a buyback program.

ADDvantage Technologies, which trades under the ticker symbol AEY on the Nasdaq exchange, saw earnings per share rise 21.2 percent over the year. Revenues dipped 2.1 percent, but total return increased 70.9 percent.

The company employs 50 in Broken Arrow in the front office and at local subsidiary Tulsat Corp., and about 140 across all subsidiaries, which include NCS Industries Inc. in Warminster, Pa.; Tulsat-Atlanta LLC in Suwannee, Ga.; ComTech Services in Sedalia, Mo.; Tulsat-Nebraska Inc. in Deshler, Neb.; Tulsat Texas in New Boston, Texas; Tulsat-West in Oceanside, Calif.; and Broadband Remarketing International in Chambersburg, Pa.

Regional distribution centers and technical service centers are important to the nimbleness that enables ADDvantage Technologies to respond immediately when a cable system needs the new or refurbished equipment the company supplies, Ken Chymiak said.

The company sells and services "headend” equipment used by system operators to acquire, process and ready television signals, high-speed Internet data and telephony for further transmission; fiber-optic equipment used to get the headend output to multiple receiver sites; distribution equipment to get data into homes, apartments, hotels, offices, schools and other institutions; and digital converters and modems required by end users.

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