How a speaker box manufacturer pivoted to PPE during COVID-19 lockdown

Executive overview

When COVID-19 hit, A-Trend USA — a Chicago-based audio equipment manufacturer — saw revenue collapse 60-80% in days. Rather than shut down, Kevin Hundal turned his team's existing machinery, supply chain relationships, and manufacturing floor into a PPE operation within weeks.

The pivot kept all 34 employees working and led to new hires within a month. The approach was grounded in a simple question: what can we do with what we already have?

When revenue collapses, the most viable pivot starts inside your own walls — your existing equipment, suppliers, and people.

The double hit that forced the pivot

• A-Trend's revenue was already exposed: ~60% from imports out of Asia, where COVID hit first
• Supply chain disruption caused an initial 15-20% revenue drop before US shelter-in-place began
• Illinois shelter-in-place (March 15, 2020) triggered a 60-80% revenue collapse within a week
• The business also faced a structural headwind: declining car ownership was already reducing demand for car audio products
• Hundal cut partner pay to zero, reduced all non-payroll costs, then still had to lay off 25% of blue-collar workers — mostly primary breadwinners — before pivoting

Finding the pivot inside the building

• The team asked: what equipment and materials do we already have?
• A CNC machine used for speaker enclosures also cuts PETG plastic — which is FDA-approved for face shields
• Within the first week, A-Trend began manufacturing face shields and acrylic barriers (the sneeze guards now ubiquitous in retail checkout lanes)
• Barriers were identified as durable infrastructure: restaurants, offices, and polling stations would all need them long after the acute phase passed
• The SWT framework (Strengths, Weaknesses, Trends) was applied instinctively — matching internal capability to external demand

Leveraging the existing supply chain

• A-Trend had 17 years of Asia sourcing relationships and knew which factories were FDA-approved
• Hundal's team used this to source masks, gloves, and hair nets — products completely new to them but sourced via familiar channels
• Key challenges: identifying non-fraudulent product, securing flights out of Shanghai (logistics backlogged by demand), and clearing US customs
• Distribution network of commission-based reps gave immediate market reach for the new product lines
• The discount code "CoachBill" at atrendsafety.com was created to extend the distribution reach through existing relationships

The human dimension

• Laying off 25% of a workforce — predominantly Hispanic heads-of-household — was the hardest decision; it motivated the urgency to pivot
• Within weeks, all laid-off workers were brought back; within a month, new hires were added
• A 10-year-old son of a director wore a KN95 mask on a virtual school call and told his class his father was helping supply protection to the world — the teacher cried
• Healthcare workers were calling A-Trend directly looking for equipment, reusing masks over multiple shifts
• Hundal frames the pivot as a moral obligation: "It's our responsibility to put food on the tables for our people — and to make sure there's a company left to do that."

The SCARF model and uncertainty

• David Rock's SCARF model: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness — five domains that trigger threat or reward responses
• Three of the five (Certainty, Autonomy, Fairness) were acutely threatened during lockdown for most people
• Understanding this helps explain resistance to returning to work and why physical safety signals (masks, barriers) are psychologically important, not just functional
• The economy did not stop — it shifted; delivery, grocery, PPE, and home-working infrastructure all saw surges

What the pivot teaches

• The question isn't "what new business can I start?" — it's "what can I do with what I have right now?"
• A pivot doesn't need to be permanent; the face shield and barrier lines serve an urgent need while the core business recovers
• Pivots apply beyond business: family routines, personal habits, community roles all benefit from the same reframing
• Speed matters: A-Trend went from idea to manufactured product and first deliveries within roughly one week
• The hardest step was the layoff — it created the pressure and moral clarity to act fast