AEC Supply, Inc.

4909 E. Sherrill Road

Minooka, IL 60447

(630) 743-9397 www.aecsproducts.com

by Meta L. Levin

In 2009 Donna Kuda was working for AAA

Silt Fencing in Minooka, IL, managing take-offs, estimating and customer requests. She did not know that her world was about to change – in a good way.

Her boss — then her boyfriend and now her husband, Al Kuda — was running the erosion control installation company and started American Erosion Control Solutions, Inc., because many of his customers wanted to purchase products, but didn’t need them installed.

After six months of trying to run both companies concurrently, he realized he needed help and looked no further than Donna Kuda. “He asked me if I wanted to take over,” she says.

Now known as AEC Supply, Inc., the original American Erosion Control Solutions has grown exponentially. To get there, however, Kuda had to clear some hurdles. She is a woman in a male dominated field and some vendors did not believe she would be able to sell their products.

In the early days, she worked to learn about the market and products that interested her potential customers. Eventually, she hired an office manager to help find the products at good prices and she found ways to obtain them at fair market value.

At first she carried silt fencing, straw blankets and hardwood stakes. Now AEC offers hundreds of products in four categories: geosynthetic products, stormwater management, erosion and sediment control and landscape supplies. In addition, the company recently started manufacturing their own filter socks, filled with Giant Freedom Miscanthus, which they grow on 95 acres of their own farmland. “It is eco-friendly and can be cut open and left on the job site,” she says.

She found other ways to separate herself from others in the same field, offering 24/7 customer service, same day delivery and access to pick up any one of several products they have in inventory. “I have my cell phone with me all the time,” she says. “Even my husband said I was kind of crazy.”