Russ Kimball has invested wit and tenacity into thriving residential company Evergreen State Heat and AC for the past 23 years.
By / Jessica Kirby • Photos courtesy of Evergreen State Heat and Air Conditioning
Evergreen State Heat and AC was established in 1968 when three men split the company as a spin off from the residential arm of the now defunct Everett Metal Products. One of those men was Gary Davis, an eventual SMACNA president and father of Darlene Salo, Evergreen State’s current general manager. Gary owned the company for 20 years before passing it on to employee Joe Pereira, who owned it for another decade. In 1998, Russ Kimball bought the company and he has owned it ever since. Today, it is a successful residential signatory shop—one of few few north of Seattle.
“My first day on the job was my first day in sheet metal,” Kimball says. “I took a class called HVAC my senior year in mechanical engineering school, which taught me nothing about the job since it was about theoretical heat transfer based system design. I had no experience in the trade, unions, technology, industry, or business metrics, and I was at the complete mercy of employees (which was great) and outgoing owner (not so much).”
Over the years, the company and has grown its customer base with dedication to quality services and products. It offers the experience needed to advise, recommend, and provide HVAC and electrical repair, installation, and maintenance services for residential homes and commercial businesses, and its customers have come to recognize and appreciate the reliability of Evergreen State’s work and equipment.
Kimball may not have been around the HVAC block before buying the company, but his success was no accident. His commitment to building the business and leveraging his team’s expertise was fierce, and he came to the table a man with a plan from day one.
“All office managers read the Cliff Notes of the book Traction, and we began with company core values we call the Evergreen Difference,” Kimball says. “These were defined over several meetings.”
Transparency – No surprises, fair rates, quality work, outstanding service.
Humility – If we don’t do it right, we will make it right. Promises made are promises kept.
Enduring– We support you before, during, and after installation for the life of the system.
Responsive – We quickly meet your needs by doing the basics better than anyone else.
“For both commercial and residential HVAC, we also defined a core focus and what is called ‘three uniques’ based on the book,” Kimball says. “We separated because both market sectors wanted different value propositions, and we still need to create these for our new electrical division.”
The residential division is exclusively driven by service replacement, and its commercial work is much the same, although the company recently completed a new build cannabis grow facility in the Fire Brothers area.
The benefit of belonging to SMACNA is “huge and invaluable,” Kimball says, especially as a person who entered the industry with no mentorship program coming in and not having a strong relationship with the previous owner.
“I needed my fellow contractors as well as the educational classes that SMACNA-Western Washington brought in,” Kimball says. “Even after 23 years, there is much I do not know, and can learn from others. Technology in our industry is rapidly changing, for instance, and I do not ever expect to be an expert in many aspects of the industry.”
Most of the feedback Evergreen State receives from happy customers focuses on the company’s workforce—its ability to deliver straightforward, helpful customer education and its expertise in field work. Again, this remarkable team didn’t come together accidentally.
“Jim Collins really nailed it in Good to Great when he said we need to get the ‘right people in the right seats’,” Kimball says. “We have great reviews and very loyal service customer base by focusing on having outstanding field personnel and competent office and sales staff.
“Being union we are a long ways from being the cheapest, so our reputation is everything.’
In 2018, Evergreen State absorbed Eastside Heating & AC—a non-union residential company—and this created a bit of havoc, Kimball says, but having weathered the storm and made the right adjustments, things are settling and the company has expanded its market area to east King County.
“It is extremely rare that we compete against a fellow SMACNA contractor,” Kimball says. “When we lose a job, 99% of the time the work goes to non-union, so having really solid and productive employees is essential.”
Learn more about about Evergreen State Heat and AC at essmwa.com. ▪
