LG Electronics USA recently celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia. The 40,000-square-foot building includes a training center that will support LG’s air conditioning business and educate contractors, technicians, and engineers about the HVAC technology.
The city of Alpharetta has been home to LG’s air conditioning business since 2006. The building, which took two years to complete, features the LG Business Innovation Center, a brand-new Learning Academy, and an Engineering Controls Lab. The goal is to bring all participants under one roof.
“It is great to have a place to showcase what we can do in the air conditioning space, first of all,” said Kevin McNamara, senior vice president, sales and operations for LG Electronics USA’s air conditioning systems business. “And, also in the bigger picture, we hope to showcase what we can do across the entire spectrum on LG products. We now have an expanded and more robust training and education facility in our headquarters. Also, we have a laboratory for testing and developing products with our customers.”
The Learning Academy builds on the LG Excellence Contractor Program, providing an additional hub for the program’s series of formal hands-on training sessions for contractors. The company’s hope is for contractors to become experts in the application, design, and technology in the field.
“We’ve built an education network for contractors,” McNamara said. “This is more than a simple academic exercise. Of course there is book learning, but there is time to actually test your skills through hands-on exercises. We think this type of installation and troubleshooting experience is important.”
McNamara believes investing in training will help the bottom line of both LG and the contractor. The goal is that every customer on an LG job has the best possible experience.
“The impression was variable refrigerant flow [VRF], or ductless systems, were an expensive technology. For the most part, product costs are all pretty much within a couple of percentage points of each other, the variable cost is the labor, as that’s where the risk is. Helping a contractor figure out how to install systems faster and reduce callbacks and lost time on a project and reducing warranty calls, that’s where it’s all at. Education is paramount to contractors. We invest in research and development; that comes naturally to our company. But, here in the U.S., investment in manpower and people power is the big differentiator for us,” McNamara said.
LG also hopes the center will boost the local economy.
“The new LG headquarters in Alpharetta is a symbol of our commitment to forward-thinking business-to-business technology, continuous innovation, and elevated education in our air conditioning business and beyond,” said William Cho, president and CEO, LG Electronics USA. “Today’s opening is another important milestone, and we look forward to remaining part of the ever-expanding Alpharetta business community.”
In addition to its air conditioning systems headquarters in Georgia, LG also opened its own Business Innovation Center for LG’s commercial display business in Lincolnshire, Illinois. For more information on LG, visit www.lghvac.com.
Publication date: 1/18/2016
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