ACHR NEWS Editorial Staff
HVAC business legend Ron Smith died Thursday, Dec. 21.
Smith touched thousands of people in the HVAC industry, ignited successful business strategies for struggling contractors, launched and sold innovative enterprises, and transformed the lives of many contractors.
Throughout his HVAC business career, starting in 1961, Smith enjoyed starting new ventures, developing and applying new creative ideas, freely sharing information, and introducing enthusiastic and bright people to the industry. Many of his operational systems and processes, and marketing and sales programs, are in wide use throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and other countries.
A true entrepreneur, in 1965 he founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc. in Ft. Myers, Florida, with a borrowed $500, no customers, and no coworkers, and built it into one of the premier and most recognized and respected firms in the U.S., with $15 million in annual revenues (that translates to $40 million to $45 million in annual revenues in today’s HVAC industry) before selling it in 1986. Later he purchased, significantly grew, and then sold three similar air conditioning and heating companies in the Louisiana and Florida markets.
In 1985, he founded Service America, based in Atlanta, the first national HVAC franchiser. In less than four years the firm had over 100 franchisees. It was later sold to a Swiss public company, purchased back two years later, and sold for the second time, in 1991, to Roto-Rooter.
Ron Smith & Associates (RS&A), an HVAC-exclusive training and consulting company based in Roswell, Georgia, was founded in 1991. RS&A, with its focus on operations, systems, processes, and disciplines, soon was one of the industry’s leading training and consulting firms. Smith developed and then over the next several years personally presented his Dominant Market Share yearlong training program to over 70 distributor groups, with well over 1,900 contractor attendees. He sold the company in 1997.
In 1997, he joined Service Experts in Brentwood, Tennessee, an HVAC consolidator and public company, as COO, and served in that position until after the company was sold to Lennox Industries. When it sold in early 2000, it had 116 locations across the U.S after making more than 200 acquisitions, and had annual revenues of over $600 million.
Smith founded, co-founded, owned, or had an ownership in 24 businesses. He also served on The ACHR NEWS contractor advisory board.
Though his innovations, cutting-edge practices, and unselfish willingness to share ways contractors can improve their business practices, Smith left a mark on the HVAC industry.
