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Who's who: Woody Alderman

Woody Alderman once said he wanted to be a tycoon or a beach bum. The beach lost out -but the beach's loss is the ATM business' gain. In 1986 Alderman founded ACG ATM-Remarketers, an ATM service and refurbishing company that has continued to grow and evolve over the years.

April 5, 2005

Even as a youngster, Woody Alderman knew he wasn't going to fit into a typical businessman's mold.

"In high school, I didn't have a clue what I wanted to be," he joked. "I told my grandmother I either wanted to be a tycoon or a beach bum."

The beach lost out.

At the age of 36, Alderman founded Alpharetta, Ga.-based ACG ATM-Remarketers, an ATM service and refurbishing company that has continued to grow and evolve with the ever-changing demands of the ATM business.

One of Woody Alderman's favorite pastimes is spending time with grandson Jack Alderman.

Long-time friend and colleague Gary Maynard, who runs a consulting company in Atlanta, said Alderman has stayed on "the leading edge."

Timing is everything

Alderman's entry into the ATM business dates back to the early 1980s, while he was working for Alpharetta, Ga.-based Lord's Computer Group Partners Inc., a company that bought IBM mainframes and peripherals and sold them to data processing departments.

Alderman quickly developed an expertise for working with IBM's remote job entry (RJE) terminals - machines that were strikingly similar to ATMs. Known as "dumb terminals," RJEs were simple machines, said Maynard, a former IBM'er who left after 30 years to launch his consulting career.

"They had a keyboard, a CRT, electronic boards on the inside and way to communicate with the main computer," Maynard said. "You would key stuff in, your boards would gather it, you would see what it was doing on the screen and then the modem or communications device would send the information."

Add a bolt or a lock, a cash dispenser and a card reader - and you've got an ATM, Maynard said.

Woody Alderman founded ACG in 1986.

By 1986, RJEs were quickly becoming obsolete - which gave Alderman a chance to monopolize the market.

"(The RJE equipment) wasn't something that everybody in the industry was familiar with, so when a customer needed a replacement part or needed a piece of their RJE equipment fixed, they called me," Alderman said.

When he started ACG, he had the wholesale industry for RJE equipment in the palm of his hand.

"People in the wholesale industry began to know I had a specialty in that area," Alderman said. "I learned pretty quickly that it was good to have a specialty."

Expansion mode

In 1988, Alderman hired Mike Ham, who had previously worked for El Camino Resources Ltd., a trading and leasing computer equipment company that also bought and sold ATMs. Alderman's brother Tom, who also worked at El Camino, soon followed - and ACG's effort to reach beyond RJEs began.

"We just started calling on banks and moving into ATMs," Alderman said.

According to Maynard, "moving into ATMs" was a smart move because of the changing dynamics of the computer market.

"He was astute enough to see that computers were getting smaller and more powerful in the mid '80s," Maynard said. "He saw that there was a short life for the remote terminals, and he knew that he had to move into something else to have his company survive."

Alderman has always known "when to pull the trigger," said life-long friend Tom Downs. "Assessing risk and knowing when to take it is his strength."

For the first four or five years, ACG was an ATM and computer parts sales office that contracted out its refurbishing work. During the early '90s, however, the company added a paint shop and in 1993 opened a 14,000-square-foot warehouse.

The road to success got a little bumpy when the economy sunk after 9-11 and Ham was forced to leave ACG because of illness. It soon became evident to Alderman that the ATM business was changing. He knew he had to change with it.

"The secret to this company's survival was that we rode the wave of growth in ATMs over the last 20 years," Alderman said. "But the trends in today's market are totally different than what they were 10 years ago, and that's forcing us to change a little bit."

A change that, in 2004, led Alderman to hire Phil Winn as the company's new executive vice president after Ham's death.

ACG now operates a 28,000 square-foot warehouse and has nearly doubled its workforce. The company also has plans to break into new product lines.

"Just as we sort of morphed out of the computer equipment business and got into ATMs, now we're morphing again," he said. "We're trying to expand our product line by taking on a line of coin and currency counting equipment. And we're looking at other opportunities, too."

Despite the new opportunities, the ATM business has been good to Alderman, and he expects to remain loyal to his ATM customers.

A nice guy

One of the secrets to Alderman's success has been his positive attitude. In fact, being "too nice" is Alderman's only business fault, as Maynard sees it.

"Woody will never intentionally hurt anyone's feelings or step on anyone's toes," Maynard said. "He probably has the highest standard of business ethics and personal ethics of anyone you would ever want to meet. … From a business perspective, he probably cares too much. … He doesn't want to fire anybody, especially if they're doing their best."

Downs said Alderman's "calm demeanor" attracts people and has been part of his company's success.

"You see the corporate bosses that rule with an iron fist, and you know a lot of people will end up leaving those places," he said. "But Woody's not like that, and he has a lot of loyal employees."

Alderman's youngest son, Dale, worked for his father last summer while on break from the University of Georgia. "It was cool to figure out the workings of the business, how they would save parts and sell parts and take ATMs apart. And none of the people who worked there were unhappy," he said.

Downs said Alderman, the son of a Methodist minister, took a lot of his early business ethics lessons from his father, and he learned the value of hard work.  "He didn't grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth, not even a silver house spoon," Downs said. "Everything he has he's earned."

Perhaps it's not surprising that one of Alderman's personal heroes is Atlanta business mogul Ted Turner.

"You admire people for some, not all, of the traits they have," Alderman said. "I know he's a character … but he's built what he has. He took huge chances all the way through his life, and I admire that."

Included In This Story

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ACG

Industry leader since 1986, ACG operates offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, London, and Poland. Providing ATM hardware and services to financial institutions, ATM service providers and gaming industries. ACG is proud to be a Master Distributor of the ATEC LTA-450, LTA-380 and LTA-100 Teller Cash Recyclers.

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