Billy Vickers, founder and CEO of Modular Assembly Innovations
Modular Assembly Innovations (MAI), purchased in 2011 by entrepreneur Billy Vickers, made over $1.2 billion in 2019 alone, making it one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the country. Since then, it has continued to thrive and bring innovation excellence in the automobile industry.
Based in Dublin, Ohio, the company is a supplier of tires and wheels for automobile giant Honda which sells more than 25 million vehicles and motorcycles every year. MAI is partners with Midwest Express Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda, to operate Great Lakes Assemblies, Gulf Shore Assemblies, and Indiana Assemblies.
In addition, MAI also produces other products such as automobile center console modules, powertrain accessory modules, chassis assemblies and engine components. They have made their plants accessible to their customer to reduce the transportation costs of those components going into their plants.
To stay ahead of the industry, MAI also made their procedure adaptable in the near future wherein hybrid electric vehicles is expected to be the new norm. With that in mind, Vickers hope the business will continue to grow as it has been doing in the past decade.
“The reason for our growth is that we delivered for our customer; we provided solutions to their problems,” Vickers told the Columbus Dispatch.