Dairen Jacobs tells Liz French that to compete with the hordes of competition in the South, this HVAC wholesaler plays the service card.

McCall’s, Inc., a wholesale distributor of HVAC equipment and supplies, is swimming in competition—and rightly so. Air conditioning is a booming business in South Carolina, where weather predictions fluctuate between hot and unbearably hot most of the year.

With HVAC distributors around every corner trying to outdo each other on price, McCall’s Inc. was built on the crazy notion that service should come first. “That is how we’ve grown our business,” said Dairen Jacobs, president and CEO. “Customers have been known to switch to another wholesaler to save a few dollars. For that reason, we have created a culture of giving customers what they want when they want it. We don’t put it in a guarantee; we just ask people to try doing business with us.”

As a result, McCall’s has been growing 20% a year. “We charge a little bit more sometimes, but our customers don’t seem to mind because they know they can expect more from us,” Jacobs said.

Outdoing the competition
Jacobs and his father-in-law, Jim McCall, started McCall’s, Inc. in 1968 with a single appliance store in Johnsonville, SC selling Amana equipment. Within a few years, the company set up shop in Myrtle Beach, Sumter, and Charlestown and continued to expand across the state. Today, it has 120 employees throughout 15 wholesale locations in South Carolina, one in Savannah, Ga., one in Lumberton, NC, and one Goldsboro, NC.

McCall’s sells to several thousand HVAC dealers, who in turn sell to home owners, developers, and businesses. Jacobs explained that many dealers have a means to transport their purchases back to their stores, but McCall’s has its own fleet, which is put to good use. Each McCall’s location has one to three trucks that rack up the miles delivering units and parts to dealers, typically once a week. But unlike the competition, the company won’t hesitate to make an emergency delivery. “If there is a project coming up, we’ll haul what the dealer needs to his shop or the job site where the equipment is being installed.”

McCall’s one-ups its competition by providing consultative services to dealers. If a piece of equipment breaks, a McCall’s representative is on the spot, working with the dealer to diagnose and remedy the problem. “We don’t make the dealer wait for service of parts because their customers rely on air conditioning—no one would live here without it,” Jacobs chuckled.

High quality products
In the early 1980s, McCall’s switched its product offerings from Amana to Goodman for its superior quality, a bold move as the Goodman name wasn’t widely recognized—but for good reason. According to Goodman’s Web site, “Instead of spending money on expensive advertising campaigns, we’ve focused on building high-quality equipment that makes indoor comfort affordable to as many people as possible.” This business strategy has made Goodman the number two brand of air conditioning and heating equipment in the US.

McCall’s now carries between 200,000 and 300,000 Goodman residential and light commercial air conditioning and heating products, ranging from heat pump systems and gas furnaces to packaged air conditioners and indoor quality air systems.

The company also carries water-source heat pump units from Fort Lauderdale-based Florida Heat Pump. McCall’s chose Forida Heat Pump for its 35 years of experience and ISO9001/2000 certification. In addition, the company test runs every unit on the production line to ensure it is in perfect condition once it hits one of McCall’s 18 stores.

To create more space for its ever-expanding list of product offerings, warehouse space has been added to the Myrtle Beach facility. The addition allows the company to store $500,000 more inventory than it could previously. But more importantly, the layout has been reconfigured to put the most popular items within arms reach, instead of in the far, dark corners of the warehouse. Jacobs said that products are now easier to load and unload, improving turnaround times. In addition, McCall’s is replacing its 10,000-square-foot facility in Lumberton, SC with a 20,000-square-foot facility in another location, a project that is expected to be complete within six months.