January 12, 2025 • 31 mins
TIM DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRADE INDUSTRY AS A CAREER CHOICE AND THE MANY BENEFITS OF A CAREER IN THE TRADES, AS WELL AS HOW RANDAZZO HELPS THE COMMUNITY WITH ENERGY SAVING DURING THE WINTER SEASON.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Light Up the D, a focus on what's
happening in our community from the people who make it happen.
Here's your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Light Up
the D. I'm your host, Colleen Grant, Thanks for joining
me today. So I have this very special guest today.
His name is Tim Jury. He's worked at in the
HVAC field for twenty years. He started as a student
at Northwestern Tech over in Southfield in two thousand and four,
and after graduation he became a service technician and through
(00:34):
hard work and grit, he persevered through the HVAC industry
to become the general manager of Randazzo Heating, Cooling and Electrical.
As the general manager of Randazzo, Tim now oversees two
hundred Michigan employees. Thank you for employing all those Michiganders.
Tim and is responsible for keeping one of the largest
HVAC companies in Southeast Michigan running. Speaking with us today
(00:58):
about Randezzo Heating, Cooling and Electrical the things they do
in southeast to Michigan. To help you guys with your
home needs. Is Tim Jurie thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Tim, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Why don't we start You know, you and I were
talking before the show. We were kind of talking about
the trades industry and how important it is to the community.
Why don't we just start by talking a little bit
about your background and how you even got into the
field of heat and cooling and electrical.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Sure, well, you alluded just a little bit a second
ago about thank thank us for employing these two hundred people.
I would far more thank these two hundred people for
working for us because the team is what drives us
as a whole, and that allows us to do some
of these different things in the community and to be
able to lend a hand where we can. You know,
(01:47):
I think everybody at their core would love to help
people down on their locker and need, but do they
have the resources. Do they have the ability to put
together a team and knock out a large project. And thankfully,
you know, from our perspective at Randeza, we do have
that team. And you know, there's not a situation that
goes by where one of our technicians or employees in
(02:09):
the field see a need and if that need is
something that they get to the right people and say
this person doesn't have safe running equipment. Is there anything
we can do? Well, there is something we can do,
and we certainly do our best to try and sneak
that stuff in there as a charitable event to make
sure people are heating in a safe manner.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Well, I see how you did that. I see what
you just did there.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I asked you about you and you turned it on
to how how your two hundred people help people, and
I just love that. So that actually right away sets
the groundwork for us for a conversation that really speaks
to how you guys your value system in the community
and how you treat your customers and the way that
you approach business. So I appreciate I appreciate that that
(02:54):
beginning to the conversation. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But back to you, Tim, how did you get to
do the business?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, how I got into the business was I was
a young father. My my girlfriend at the time, you know,
said hey, you know, what does a career look like?
And I wasn't really sure. So what I did was
look at how do I go from you know, having
a kind of a dead end job into into a career.
(03:21):
And I came across Northwestern Tech, which is a local
HVAC school.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Yeah, they've been around a long time.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, yep, great people over there. And so I enrolled
there and I really I really liked it a lot,
did well in there and really applied myself. And the
day I was graduated out of there, I I started
at a company. I got out on Thursday, started at
a company on a Monday because I knew a friend
of a friend that that was able to say, hey,
you know, my boss will give you a shot. And
(03:48):
from there I just kind of kept my head down
and worked hard and learned and tried to kind of
perfect my craft as best I could and advanced through
the industry. And it's, uh, each day from then even
until now that goes by, it's I just look what
am I going to do tomorrow? What is tomorrow look like?
What am I going to learn? And then the next thing,
you know, you look back and it was twenty years ago,
(04:09):
you know, And but that's how I got started. It
was it was, you know, in complete honesty. It was
out of necessity. It was, hey, what am I going
to do with myself to support my child? And again
my girlfriend who now is my wife, for a long time.
We got five kids together, grandchild now, So congratulations, thank you,
and so understanding that as I as I get older
(04:30):
and kind of work my way through this this industry
and this life, and understanding that a four year degree
is not going to be for everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, the trades industry
is so crucial and it seems like there's never enough
people available, you know. I mean, I think we can
all say we've all been in this situation where it's like,
oh my gosh, I have an electrical emergency, Oh my gosh,
I my AC's out, or in this time of year,
you know, oh my gosh, I'm going to be freezing
if I don't find somebody. There's always a demand and
(04:59):
it seems like it's exploding.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And and how how much opportunity is there.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
In the field, Well, it absolutely is the case that
it's kind of that we're recovering. But we were facing
a very large shortage in technicians and you know, field
technicians in this industry. We as long, we along with
most contractors and different people in this industry, since kind
(05:26):
of twenty twenty and beyond, have put a large focus
on letting people know that you can make a great
living in the trades. It's not a four year degree.
If you're not cut out for that. You have the
ability to get into a trade school and out within
a year and you can make a good living. And
there's there's a lot of opportunity out there. So I
think we're coming around to where people are understanding that
(05:47):
it's not this it's not a negative view right to
be in the trades as opposed to a four year degree,
and people are rejoining that workforce and and we're certainly
here to support it because the demand is only growing
and the field we continue to add the field technicians
into too, and do our company as well as most
(06:08):
of your local contractors.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Will cause the shortage in the first place.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Well, I think you know, it's easy to look back
on COVID and say it it caused this or it
caused that.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Right a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And that's the thing, as I think it didn't help,
But we had we had a retirement kind of a
retirement group that left a kind of a hole in
that in that in those tradesmen areas that are coming
out that because since probably you know, early mid nineties,
you had a lot of people focused on four year
(06:41):
degrees and rightfully so right and that created Hey, everybody's
parents would go to college, go to college, go to college,
and that's great. That developed into there's there's no tradesmen
out there. Everybody's kind of a got a bachelor's for
this or that, and that's fantastic, but here we are.
And so the refocus was, hey, that's fantastic too, but
this is an alternative. And we've seen people from all
(07:04):
walks of life gravitate to that and really develop their
skills and that that that tradesman attitude, and some of
it is based on, you know, young people coming up
starting a family saying, Hey, I don't want to pay
all this money to fix my house. What if I
was in a trade and I could kind of do
some of these things. And so we've seen a really
really strong increase in that in the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
What do you think are some of the best things
about being a tradesman, Like, when you think about the
benefits of it, what are some of the things that
people may not realize are really great about being a tradesman?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well, I touched on it a little bit just a
second ago. But if you're a homeowner or your you know,
your mom and your family and the air condition is
not working, or the plumbings acting up or whatever that
might be, a lot of people don't understand or kind
of have a trouble grasping what. And you and I
have just talked about a little bit. Contractors in general
(07:58):
to have a specialized trade. It's not cheap to them
come into your home, and a lot of people love
just to be able to say, hey, my sister's you know,
heating's acting up. I'm gonna scoot over there after work
and take a look for and just the ability to help.
But even beyond that, tradesmen are put into positions every
day where they get to help somebody and whatever that
may be, whether it's heating, cooling, electrical, those types of things.
(08:21):
To walk into a house and I was in the
service field for a long time, to walk into a
house where it's actually in the house thirty five degrees
and it is cold, and they've been without heat for
a couple of days, and to spend an hour, hour
and a half kind of tinkering and getting things going,
and by the time you leave, they're like warming up
and they're so thankful and you're able to say, hey,
(08:42):
let's turn the oven off here, that's on safe. We
want to we want to get you back to the
safe way to operate. And that feels good just as
kind of a human interaction, you know, to be able
to help people where you can.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah, using the oven as a heater.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, we see it from time to time. And I
understand people can get into positions where you know, you
gotta do what you gotta do, right, but it is
it's one of those things that's unsafe, and we want
to get there as quick as we can to assist
you from hopefully not being able to do that.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Yeah. So, and I bet you've seen a lot of
things over time.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know we see anywhere from you know,
people having issues with you know, the the gas feed
not being correct or or the actual furnace being broken,
or did the basement take on water and now we've
damaged some of those components. And those are the areas
where people in general just don't know what to do.
(09:35):
You know, they're like, hey, I had a couple of
inches of water because you know, whether the we get
those rain storms down on the Lower East Side over here,
and it seems like a couple of years and they're like,
where do we go from here? Well, I can't. It's
one of those things where we can tell you what
the next step is. And I think that's helpful to
people to understand. Okay, it's it's either called the insurance
company or here's you know, we can we can repair
(09:56):
this for you for whatever cost they may be. But
there's an out for you you can and get back
to normal. We can't help you, you know. It's some
situations where you know, when I was in the field,
that's probably seven eight years ago, but I went to
a home and it was freezing cold, and I got
a call from from my boss at the time, who
was Pete Randazzo, and he said, hey, there's there's there's
(10:19):
gonna be no bill on this one. Just get in,
get them heating, and get out, you know, and take
care of them as best you can. And it was
an older lady and she obviously didn't have the means
to get things going right, and Pete said, whatever it is,
fix it and let's let's keep moving. And those are
the stories that resonate with me that that we continue
to try and put forward with our team. Is sure,
we're in business to kind of continue and grow and
(10:42):
do those types of things, but man, if there's a
place that we can lend a hand, we certainly want
to try and do that.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So you just mentioned Pete and you know, and the
intro that I gave for you, I had said that
you've been in the industry for twenty years, and before
we before we started the show, you were saying that
you've been with the company for twelve years. And so
I love the story that Pete just called. You know,
he called you up and said, hey, whatever it takes,
just take care of this person. And you know, I
(11:07):
guess that leads me to ask you, like, why, Randazzo,
how'd you end up there?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Well, when I got out of school from Northwestern and
I started at a smaller company. And one of the
things that I liked about Randezza was even though I
worked as a you know, a competitor at the time,
I would see their commercials and stuff and I said, man,
these this team seems to be have it all together,
and that's the premier team I want to be a
(11:33):
part of. And nothing against the smaller company. I got
you know, you kind of get in there, you get
your feet wet, you understand the industry, and I said,
I want to be part of something bigger, part of
something that's special, something that's premiere. And that's what what
led me over to Randezzo in twenty twelve. And since
then I think I can tell you I made the
right choice and that these it is a premier, premiere
(11:54):
operation that gives back to their community community in a
lot of different ways. And occasionally people will see a
story about a community event or something that we're participating in,
but that's not to that doesn't cover the the other
ones that are plenty under the radar, where like like
I just said with Pete he said, just knock it out,
take care of it, let's keep moving. And and you
(12:14):
know those are the ones that are special to me.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Can you give me some examples of like the value
systems that you think make it a premier organization?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Sure, we we operate under under kind of what we
call our pillars, which is integrity, innovation and excellent right.
And we do everything with integrity and if that means
you know, we we have a decision to make what's
going to steer us our integrity is and if that
that means our integrity says we need to take care
of this customer and there's no no invoice to it
(12:43):
for whatever reason, that means that's what we got to do.
You know. The innovation part is is we buy into
and deliver all of your state of the art products.
You know, you guys are in this this fantastic studio
with a lot of you know, state of the article
and people in their heating and cooling systems want the
same thing and to be able to operate your heating
(13:05):
and cooling system from your phone while you're at work
and you want it to be warmed up by the
time you get home, and you just want to do that.
So we continue to operate using all of the forward
thinking products that are offered from our manufacturers to us,
and we train in that way and again with excellence.
We anything we do needs to be top of the line.
(13:26):
You know, we need to be premiere and it needs
to be the result needs to be excellent, and that's
what we strive for. Now. Do we always hit a
home run? Not every time? Right? There are times when
we you know, may stumble in regard to delivering the
premiere product and experience, but we'll clean it up and
we'll do better the next time, and that that's kind
of our promise to to our community.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
You mentioned Premiere a lot and you mentioned community a lot.
Are there examples of how you support Southeast Michigan things
that you guys are specifically doing these days?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So this year, for the past I believe fourteen years,
we participate in something called Feel the Love and that's
from Lenox, which is the manufacture of the heating and
cooling equipment. And we open up nominations from May through
August and the community can nominate people, whether it be
(14:20):
that put community service first, whether it be first responders,
people down on their luck, whoever they want to nominate.
Lenox provides us the equipment. We provide the parts and
pieces as well as the labor to install that equipment
free of charge to those individuals in the community. We
have taken on this year a couple of our own
projects that we're really proud of. One is Heat for
(14:40):
the Heroes and we recently took nominations for a veteran
that was in need of a heating system, installed it
on Veterans Day and that it was really, really awesome.
We're also doing something this year called Pete's Gift of
Heat and that's it's kind of a heat for the
Holidays theme. We know it's called we know it's and
we look at one of those things, what would Pete
(15:02):
want to do, and we know Pete would want to
take care of someone that's that's that needs it installed.
That no charge should get them safe and operable heating equipment,
and that should We're closing nominations on December first. We're
going through the process of getting those when scheduled and
that will be taking place in there's the December thirteenth
(15:22):
is the installation day, so that's Friday.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
How exciting, very cool.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
That must feel great and your employees must love being
a part of things like that.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
They do. We have, for instance, our our feel of love.
We've had the same two installation technicians for the past
three or four years because they don't want to they
don't want to give it up to the next crew
to come on because they love doing it so much.
And so we told them this year, hey, we'll knock
out this year. Next year we got to get you know,
kind of pass the torch to get somebody else. But
(15:50):
They love it, man, they really do. They get out
there and you know, we'll show up and just you know,
drop off some doughnuts and speak with the homeowners and
talk to them about what to expect. And it's really
a really cool thing. You know, when you go through,
especially in the trades, it's not it's not easy work there.
There's tough days, there's long days, right, and and so
when we can provide a situation along with Lenox or
(16:12):
or or ourselves, but we can provide that that that
atmosphere for the team to get out and say, man,
this is really really cool that. I'm sure I'm at work,
but man, this is really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, it's it's nice to hear that Lennux supports something
like that as well. Uh and then heart Sorry, Heat
for the Heroes? How did that come about?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
So that was essentially three or four of us and
our management team said, hey, we want to add a
couple of programs this year. You know, what what do
we want to what do we want to do? And
Heat for the Holidays was one of those ones that
pops up initially because we think, all right, it's holidays,
we want to give something. It's cold, we want to
get that that that heat going, and a young lady
(16:53):
from our management team said, what about you know, veterans
and how we do that and and so we discussed
that and we said, well, let's do them both. And
so that's kind of where we landed this year. Those
two programs are kind of slated to continue annually, so
we look forward to doing it again next year. And
so with Lennox Feel the Love, it's October, Heat for
(17:14):
the Heroes is November, and Pete's Gift to Heat is December.
So we're covering those last three cold months of the
year to at least try and help somebody in the
community kind of get back get back on their heat
with a new operating furnace.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So, speaking of the cold, with winter being here, what
are some practical tips you can offer people who are
listening right now to help help us stay warm and
maybe save on some energy costs. You probably have all
sorts of ideas of ways to help people.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Sure well, I would say that when it comes to
energy costs, as we see those energy costs rise, if
you haven't, I would consider making the switch into a
high efficiency heating unit. Whether most everything that's kind of
installed now is high efficiency. So if you've done an
upgrade in the last couple of years, you're probably you know,
(18:03):
kind of there. But if you're sitting on an older furnace,
it's something to consider because you are you're you're spending
a dollar on fuel usage and twenty percent of that's
making its way out the chimney, right, and so you
want to get into the the efficiency range of the
mid nineties, high nineties something like that. So that's kind
of the greater scope. But beyond that, you want to
(18:23):
make sure you're changing the filter. Okay, that's probably our
number one service call as people just forget about that
filter in the basement and it gets dirty and then
the airflow slows down, which creates a couple of situations
where you need a technician to have a look. And we,
along with you know, many many other contractors, offer maintenance
plans to where we can come out and see it,
once for the furnace, once for the air conditioning. We
(18:44):
can get you kind of square and ready to roll
for that season, which is gives you that peace of
mind and have that filter looked at and those kinds
of things.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So there are that many calls that really it's just
the filter, Like if they had actually changed the filter,
that that would solve the problem.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's out of sight, out
of mind a little bit. And that furnace is taking
your room temperature air and then heating it and delivering
it back to you as warm air through your supply ducts.
And what happens is when the filter gets neglected for
a little bit too long, is it starts to kind
of choke out that furnace, and the furnace just basically says, hey,
I'm running a little hot. I'm going to call it
(19:20):
quits for the day, you know. So uh so Yeah,
keeping that that clean air filter to allow that continual
kind of breathing moment for the furnace to keep going
efficiently is key to keeping keeping the service text out
of your house. Right, And we'd love to come see it,
but if we can help you kind of avoid a
service situation and an outage in your heat, we would
prefer it too, because again, it induces a little sense
(19:44):
of panic for a lot of homeowners and they say, man,
it is cold, my furnace isn't working now what right? Yeah, Now,
we'll be there when you call but if you keep
up on the smaller maintenance things, it can go a
long way to to avoiding those those service costs.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, so on a way you can remember to do
that is what daylight saying. You can just do it
daylight savings and don't forget. You can also change your
batteries for your fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors during
those times too. This can be those dates can kind
of be your dates to remember to change your filters,
change your batteries, keep your home safe.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
That way, you don't have to like remember you.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Know, yeah, well in the depending on which filter, there's
a few different ones. Some will last just six months
to a year, some are thirty days. It just depends,
but whichever one you choose, Yeah, you're right, we need
a reminder of some sort, right, And so I am
notorious for using Siri to remind me of things all
the time. And so you can a lot of modern
(20:38):
thermostats have a little reminder you can click for thirty days.
So set yourself whatever reminder that is. And because if
most people are like me, I say, oh, I know
I'm going to remember that two months goes by, I
have no idea what I was supposed to remember, and
so I use Syria to kind of prompt me with
those reminders from time to time.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I feel like I'm probably in trouble already. If
it's every month, I'm definitely not going to get on that.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, it just depends which kind you have. There's some uh,
you know, some of your your larger ones can go
just a little bit longer. It just depends what you
got in there. But either way, they're all They all
work well and work as designed if they're changed on
the right cadence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And your high efficiency heating unit, let's talk about that
for a sec because is it correct that could be
more expensive than another kind, but in the long run
it's going to save you money.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Well, yeah, how does that work for the consumer?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Right? So, your your standard efficiency now is kind of
starts at ninety five ninety six? Right now? Is that
to say? Can I have the efficiency with the ninety
six percent base model? Sure? Do you want bells and whistles?
Do you want you know, some of the variable capability
which allows you essentially to say, hey, if my home
(21:50):
only needs to heat just a little bit, I'd like
my furnace just to run at forty capacity just for
a few minutes to get me there instead of this
full bore heat is as much as you can type
of stuff. So the efficiency is there kind of regardless
where you land. When you upgrade, it's just about what
kind of bells, whistles and different things do you want
(22:10):
to come with that. But but yes, in the end,
it's like most things, if as you kind of build
into some of the offerings with that piece of equipment,
the price will increase a little bit, but the efficiency
now can get you up to ninety nine percent efficient.
And what do you mean by efficiency, Well, essentially, like
I said before, so now for that dollar you spend
on gas usage, you're actually seeing ninety nine percent of
(22:31):
it being used for you as opposed so we're throwing chimney,
So we're throwing a penny out of the chimney instead
of twenty cents.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, right, all right, Well there you go, I mean
right there, save you, save you money. So that's whether
you realize it or not, it is well.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And you'll, again, like to to what you stated, over
the long run, you're going to see it. You're going
to see it in your in your energy bills. You're
going to see them start to come down and understand
the comfort level as well changes because you're delivering a
nice flow of nice even heat. Back in the day,
they used to say, hey, man, throw the biggest furnace
(23:05):
you can in there and let that thing kick heat up.
And and so what you'll see when people do upgrade
is like, man, the old one blue. It was so
hot and it was so loud, and we're like, well,
the idea now is that your comfort system. You don't
really want to notice it. You just want to know
that you're saving money and your home is just as
comfortable as you want it. And you don't need to
know that it's kicking on or kicking off. You just
(23:26):
want to live your life right right exactly. So there's
obviously some thought changes in the last you know, thirty
forty years in regard to how you want to deliver comfort,
and people are far more, far more app now to
pay attention to their the economics of it, as opposed
to just say, and heat this thing. You know, back
in the seventies, gas was cheap, right, and you just
(23:47):
get this thing to run all you want. Nowadays, people
are keeping an eye on their the carbon footprint as
well as the cost of what the energy usage is.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Great point about that carbon footprint that people are conscientious
of now too.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So let's move into refrigeration.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So there there's you know this A two L like
new regulations that are happening on we're hearing about that,
but I don't really know what it is, and but
it could affect you know, it could affect us. Can
you give us some idea on that, because it's we're
talking about pricing and money and stuff like that, So
how could that affect consumers?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
So the A two L is a refrigerant change that's
being you know, rolled out January first, twenty twenty five. Okay,
So that can't your your older refrigerant, which is essentially
called our four ten A which is what we're kind
of all using right now, can't be produced in equipment anymore, okay.
So in our state, in our zone, we can continue
(24:46):
to install stock of four ten A until the end
of twenty twenty five, okay, And so you know that's
that's part of the If you can find a company
that that is prepared to do that and kind of
carry that a little bit, you're gonna be able to
save a little more if you are looking to replace. Now,
that's not to say changing refrigerants isn't the move for
you and looking to get in front of in front
(25:07):
of that the changeover, a lot of companies aren't. A
lot of people are for us. In order to kind
of help our customers as best we can, you know,
we're going to continue to do what we need to
do in stock equipment that still fits what our customers need.
Now the changeover is a little different. You are, we
are going to see a price hike and just new equipment.
(25:28):
That's that's just how it's going to be with with
your A two O refrigerant. And the reason they do
that is it's a low GWP refrigerant, which is global
warm global warming potential, and so that'll continue as we
look ten years down the road, this refrigerant that's being
unrolled and twenty twenty five will likely begin to get
phased out as well. We'll be introduced to something now
(25:48):
or something then with even a lower GWP. And again
that goes to our conversation a little bit about the
global footprint across across the world really and everyone kind
of tightening their bootstraps to make some changes to to
kind of to help us through that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Right, what are your what do you want to see
for Brandez over the coming years. What are some of
your goals and for your for the colleagues that you
work with and the company. What do you want to
have happened in your future?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Well, I want to continue to grow that that number
of people that work for us, that two hundred number
we talked about, and we want to continue to employ
community members where they can, you know, put put forth
effort for us, effort for themselves and continue to contribute
to their community. In twenty twenty five, we are looking
to add a plumbing division, which is something that is
(26:39):
near and dear to our hearts because we we want
to be a full home service company, right and plumbing
is one that we haven't taken on yet. So that's
an area we're going to focus to be able to
offer our customers. Going to be hiring, yes, we are, absolutely,
and you know we're we're we're hiring as well, you know,
because we're looking to grow in twenty five, so we're
(26:59):
looking to add you know, i'll say twenty as a
round number h VAC technicians as well. So we'll continue
to look and to build for my my team that
I work with, whether that be our field team or
our management team and things like that. What do I
want to see from them and for them? I want
to continue to see them advance. I want them to
(27:19):
continue to feel challenged and and continue to, you know,
come forth with ideas that that makes sense for the
community as a whole. And I am a firm believer
that when we get together, it's never this dictatorship where
where where you know, I say here's how we're going
to do it. It's a who's who's got a great
idea for us today? And if it is, I will
(27:41):
we'll gladly talk it out and figure out how do
we make that happen. And there's the team that that
I work with every day continues to provide great insight
as to how we can become better and more more premiere,
I guess is a good way to say it. But
continuing that strive towards excellence is what I want to
(28:01):
continue to see.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And how do you see the HVAC industry changing in
the next five to ten years? Anything coming up that
you know we talked about obviously one change in refrigeration,
but anything else that's happening in the industry that you
can tell us about.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Well, the refrigeration. The refrigerant change will be a fairly
large undertaking, and it's not anything we haven't done before.
We did it in two thousand and nine or ten
when we switched from the old refrigerant to what we're
using now. But what we're continuing to see and thankfully
is young people that are coming into the trades earlier,
(28:34):
and so we're seeing great whether it be nineteen and
twenty year olds that are either a year or so
out of school or have decided, hey, I want to
go with trades. We're continuing to see that project itself,
which makes us really happy because it's a long future
that we that we're preparing for, you know, because retirement age.
They don't even get to think about it yet, they're
only twenty.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
True, what do you Let's finish our wonderful conversation about
what do you love about what you do?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I think the for me, it's it's the ability to
help people. I've I've been I've been put in a
position to be able to not only help community members
and make decisions that can affect people within the community,
but I can make decisions and be part of making
decisions that help to see team, the team with me grow.
(29:24):
One of the things that that has kind of struck
me over the last year or two is when I
see my team members getting married, having their first kids,
and and I just kind of look back and say,
I remember when these guys that I worked with were like, oh,
it's your first kid, congratulations, And now that's me. And
I love to see you're you're you're comfortable enough in
(29:44):
your your trade that you're willing to start a family,
You're willing to get married, you're willing to say I
have a career, let's build our life for me. That's
huge and I love seeing it.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Wow, that's that was kind of an unexpected comment that
part of what you love to see is like the
building of families in your own in your own building.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, absolutely, it's where we have. I'm sure everybody says this,
but we've got that that family atmosphere, and it's one
of those things where you know, we'll we'll argue like
brother and sister, but nobody else gets to argue with us,
you know. So, but seeing seeing the team build their
families and and go through the early part of their
lives and it's fantastic to see you're.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Gonna be there a long time.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I plan on, I plan on, I like it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Our guest today has been Tim Jury. He's the general
manager for Randazzo Heating, Cooling, and Electrical and soon to
be a refrigerator, soon to be plumbing too, right, Yeah,
you guys are going to have to change your name
and your a jingle and everything. You guys, I know
you know the jingle out there, all right, Tim, Thanks
for joining us, stay sure. Appreciated the conversation and everything
you do to help folks in the community.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Thank you for having me. This has been great.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
This has been light up the d a community a
fairs program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here all episodes on this station's podcast page.
Welcome to Light Up the D, a focus on what's
happening in our community from the people who make it happen.
Here's your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Light Up
the D. I'm your host, Colleen Grant, Thanks for joining
me today. So I have this very special guest today.
His name is Tim Jury. He's worked at in the
HVAC field for twenty years. He started as a student
at Northwestern Tech over in Southfield in two thousand and four,
and after graduation he became a service technician and through
(00:34):
hard work and grit, he persevered through the HVAC industry
to become the general manager of Randazzo Heating, Cooling and Electrical.
As the general manager of Randazzo, Tim now oversees two
hundred Michigan employees. Thank you for employing all those Michiganders.
Tim and is responsible for keeping one of the largest
HVAC companies in Southeast Michigan running. Speaking with us today
(00:58):
about Randezzo Heating, Cooling and Electrical the things they do
in southeast to Michigan. To help you guys with your
home needs. Is Tim Jurie thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Tim, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Why don't we start You know, you and I were
talking before the show. We were kind of talking about
the trades industry and how important it is to the community.
Why don't we just start by talking a little bit
about your background and how you even got into the
field of heat and cooling and electrical.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Sure, well, you alluded just a little bit a second
ago about thank thank us for employing these two hundred people.
I would far more thank these two hundred people for
working for us because the team is what drives us
as a whole, and that allows us to do some
of these different things in the community and to be
able to lend a hand where we can. You know,
(01:47):
I think everybody at their core would love to help
people down on their locker and need, but do they
have the resources. Do they have the ability to put
together a team and knock out a large project. And thankfully,
you know, from our perspective at Randeza, we do have
that team. And you know, there's not a situation that
goes by where one of our technicians or employees in
(02:09):
the field see a need and if that need is
something that they get to the right people and say
this person doesn't have safe running equipment. Is there anything
we can do? Well, there is something we can do,
and we certainly do our best to try and sneak
that stuff in there as a charitable event to make
sure people are heating in a safe manner.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Well, I see how you did that. I see what
you just did there.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I asked you about you and you turned it on
to how how your two hundred people help people, and
I just love that. So that actually right away sets
the groundwork for us for a conversation that really speaks
to how you guys your value system in the community
and how you treat your customers and the way that
you approach business. So I appreciate I appreciate that that
(02:54):
beginning to the conversation. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But back to you, Tim, how did you get to
do the business?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, how I got into the business was I was
a young father. My my girlfriend at the time, you know,
said hey, you know, what does a career look like?
And I wasn't really sure. So what I did was
look at how do I go from you know, having
a kind of a dead end job into into a career.
(03:21):
And I came across Northwestern Tech, which is a local
HVAC school.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Yeah, they've been around a long time.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, yep, great people over there. And so I enrolled
there and I really I really liked it a lot,
did well in there and really applied myself. And the
day I was graduated out of there, I I started
at a company. I got out on Thursday, started at
a company on a Monday because I knew a friend
of a friend that that was able to say, hey,
you know, my boss will give you a shot. And
(03:48):
from there I just kind of kept my head down
and worked hard and learned and tried to kind of
perfect my craft as best I could and advanced through
the industry. And it's, uh, each day from then even
until now that goes by, it's I just look what
am I going to do tomorrow? What is tomorrow look like?
What am I going to learn? And then the next thing,
you know, you look back and it was twenty years ago,
(04:09):
you know, And but that's how I got started. It
was it was, you know, in complete honesty. It was
out of necessity. It was, hey, what am I going
to do with myself to support my child? And again
my girlfriend who now is my wife, for a long time.
We got five kids together, grandchild now, So congratulations, thank you,
and so understanding that as I as I get older
(04:30):
and kind of work my way through this this industry
and this life, and understanding that a four year degree
is not going to be for everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, the trades industry
is so crucial and it seems like there's never enough
people available, you know. I mean, I think we can
all say we've all been in this situation where it's like,
oh my gosh, I have an electrical emergency, Oh my gosh,
I my AC's out, or in this time of year,
you know, oh my gosh, I'm going to be freezing
if I don't find somebody. There's always a demand and
(04:59):
it seems like it's exploding.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And and how how much opportunity is there.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
In the field, Well, it absolutely is the case that
it's kind of that we're recovering. But we were facing
a very large shortage in technicians and you know, field
technicians in this industry. We as long, we along with
most contractors and different people in this industry, since kind
(05:26):
of twenty twenty and beyond, have put a large focus
on letting people know that you can make a great
living in the trades. It's not a four year degree.
If you're not cut out for that. You have the
ability to get into a trade school and out within
a year and you can make a good living. And
there's there's a lot of opportunity out there. So I
think we're coming around to where people are understanding that
(05:47):
it's not this it's not a negative view right to
be in the trades as opposed to a four year degree,
and people are rejoining that workforce and and we're certainly
here to support it because the demand is only growing
and the field we continue to add the field technicians
into too, and do our company as well as most
(06:08):
of your local contractors.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Will cause the shortage in the first place.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Well, I think you know, it's easy to look back
on COVID and say it it caused this or it
caused that.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Right a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And that's the thing, as I think it didn't help,
But we had we had a retirement kind of a
retirement group that left a kind of a hole in
that in that in those tradesmen areas that are coming
out that because since probably you know, early mid nineties,
you had a lot of people focused on four year
(06:41):
degrees and rightfully so right and that created Hey, everybody's
parents would go to college, go to college, go to college,
and that's great. That developed into there's there's no tradesmen
out there. Everybody's kind of a got a bachelor's for
this or that, and that's fantastic, but here we are.
And so the refocus was, hey, that's fantastic too, but
this is an alternative. And we've seen people from all
(07:04):
walks of life gravitate to that and really develop their
skills and that that that tradesman attitude, and some of
it is based on, you know, young people coming up
starting a family saying, Hey, I don't want to pay
all this money to fix my house. What if I
was in a trade and I could kind of do
some of these things. And so we've seen a really
really strong increase in that in the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
What do you think are some of the best things
about being a tradesman, Like, when you think about the
benefits of it, what are some of the things that
people may not realize are really great about being a tradesman?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well, I touched on it a little bit just a
second ago. But if you're a homeowner or your you know,
your mom and your family and the air condition is
not working, or the plumbings acting up or whatever that
might be, a lot of people don't understand or kind
of have a trouble grasping what. And you and I
have just talked about a little bit. Contractors in general
(07:58):
to have a specialized trade. It's not cheap to them
come into your home, and a lot of people love
just to be able to say, hey, my sister's you know,
heating's acting up. I'm gonna scoot over there after work
and take a look for and just the ability to help.
But even beyond that, tradesmen are put into positions every
day where they get to help somebody and whatever that
may be, whether it's heating, cooling, electrical, those types of things.
(08:21):
To walk into a house and I was in the
service field for a long time, to walk into a
house where it's actually in the house thirty five degrees
and it is cold, and they've been without heat for
a couple of days, and to spend an hour, hour
and a half kind of tinkering and getting things going,
and by the time you leave, they're like warming up
and they're so thankful and you're able to say, hey,
(08:42):
let's turn the oven off here, that's on safe. We
want to we want to get you back to the
safe way to operate. And that feels good just as
kind of a human interaction, you know, to be able
to help people where you can.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah, using the oven as a heater.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, we see it from time to time. And I
understand people can get into positions where you know, you
gotta do what you gotta do, right, but it is
it's one of those things that's unsafe, and we want
to get there as quick as we can to assist
you from hopefully not being able to do that.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Yeah. So, and I bet you've seen a lot of
things over time.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know we see anywhere from you know,
people having issues with you know, the the gas feed
not being correct or or the actual furnace being broken,
or did the basement take on water and now we've
damaged some of those components. And those are the areas
where people in general just don't know what to do.
(09:35):
You know, they're like, hey, I had a couple of
inches of water because you know, whether the we get
those rain storms down on the Lower East Side over here,
and it seems like a couple of years and they're like,
where do we go from here? Well, I can't. It's
one of those things where we can tell you what
the next step is. And I think that's helpful to
people to understand. Okay, it's it's either called the insurance
company or here's you know, we can we can repair
(09:56):
this for you for whatever cost they may be. But
there's an out for you you can and get back
to normal. We can't help you, you know. It's some
situations where you know, when I was in the field,
that's probably seven eight years ago, but I went to
a home and it was freezing cold, and I got
a call from from my boss at the time, who
was Pete Randazzo, and he said, hey, there's there's there's
(10:19):
gonna be no bill on this one. Just get in,
get them heating, and get out, you know, and take
care of them as best you can. And it was
an older lady and she obviously didn't have the means
to get things going right, and Pete said, whatever it is,
fix it and let's let's keep moving. And those are
the stories that resonate with me that that we continue
to try and put forward with our team. Is sure,
we're in business to kind of continue and grow and
(10:42):
do those types of things, but man, if there's a
place that we can lend a hand, we certainly want
to try and do that.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So you just mentioned Pete and you know, and the
intro that I gave for you, I had said that
you've been in the industry for twenty years, and before
we before we started the show, you were saying that
you've been with the company for twelve years. And so
I love the story that Pete just called. You know,
he called you up and said, hey, whatever it takes,
just take care of this person. And you know, I
(11:07):
guess that leads me to ask you, like, why, Randazzo,
how'd you end up there?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Well, when I got out of school from Northwestern and
I started at a smaller company. And one of the
things that I liked about Randezza was even though I
worked as a you know, a competitor at the time,
I would see their commercials and stuff and I said, man,
these this team seems to be have it all together,
and that's the premier team I want to be a
(11:33):
part of. And nothing against the smaller company. I got
you know, you kind of get in there, you get
your feet wet, you understand the industry, and I said,
I want to be part of something bigger, part of
something that's special, something that's premiere. And that's what what
led me over to Randezzo in twenty twelve. And since
then I think I can tell you I made the
right choice and that these it is a premier, premiere
(11:54):
operation that gives back to their community community in a
lot of different ways. And occasionally people will see a
story about a community event or something that we're participating in,
but that's not to that doesn't cover the the other
ones that are plenty under the radar, where like like
I just said with Pete he said, just knock it out,
take care of it, let's keep moving. And and you
(12:14):
know those are the ones that are special to me.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Can you give me some examples of like the value
systems that you think make it a premier organization?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Sure, we we operate under under kind of what we
call our pillars, which is integrity, innovation and excellent right.
And we do everything with integrity and if that means
you know, we we have a decision to make what's
going to steer us our integrity is and if that
that means our integrity says we need to take care
of this customer and there's no no invoice to it
(12:43):
for whatever reason, that means that's what we got to do.
You know. The innovation part is is we buy into
and deliver all of your state of the art products.
You know, you guys are in this this fantastic studio
with a lot of you know, state of the article
and people in their heating and cooling systems want the
same thing and to be able to operate your heating
(13:05):
and cooling system from your phone while you're at work
and you want it to be warmed up by the
time you get home, and you just want to do that.
So we continue to operate using all of the forward
thinking products that are offered from our manufacturers to us,
and we train in that way and again with excellence.
We anything we do needs to be top of the line.
(13:26):
You know, we need to be premiere and it needs
to be the result needs to be excellent, and that's
what we strive for. Now. Do we always hit a
home run? Not every time? Right? There are times when
we you know, may stumble in regard to delivering the
premiere product and experience, but we'll clean it up and
we'll do better the next time, and that that's kind
of our promise to to our community.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
You mentioned Premiere a lot and you mentioned community a lot.
Are there examples of how you support Southeast Michigan things
that you guys are specifically doing these days?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So this year, for the past I believe fourteen years,
we participate in something called Feel the Love and that's
from Lenox, which is the manufacture of the heating and
cooling equipment. And we open up nominations from May through
August and the community can nominate people, whether it be
(14:20):
that put community service first, whether it be first responders,
people down on their luck, whoever they want to nominate.
Lenox provides us the equipment. We provide the parts and
pieces as well as the labor to install that equipment
free of charge to those individuals in the community. We
have taken on this year a couple of our own
projects that we're really proud of. One is Heat for
(14:40):
the Heroes and we recently took nominations for a veteran
that was in need of a heating system, installed it
on Veterans Day and that it was really, really awesome.
We're also doing something this year called Pete's Gift of
Heat and that's it's kind of a heat for the
Holidays theme. We know it's called we know it's and
we look at one of those things, what would Pete
(15:02):
want to do, and we know Pete would want to
take care of someone that's that's that needs it installed.
That no charge should get them safe and operable heating equipment,
and that should We're closing nominations on December first. We're
going through the process of getting those when scheduled and
that will be taking place in there's the December thirteenth
(15:22):
is the installation day, so that's Friday.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
How exciting, very cool.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
That must feel great and your employees must love being
a part of things like that.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
They do. We have, for instance, our our feel of love.
We've had the same two installation technicians for the past
three or four years because they don't want to they
don't want to give it up to the next crew
to come on because they love doing it so much.
And so we told them this year, hey, we'll knock
out this year. Next year we got to get you know,
kind of pass the torch to get somebody else. But
(15:50):
They love it, man, they really do. They get out
there and you know, we'll show up and just you know,
drop off some doughnuts and speak with the homeowners and
talk to them about what to expect. And it's really
a really cool thing. You know, when you go through,
especially in the trades, it's not it's not easy work there.
There's tough days, there's long days, right, and and so
when we can provide a situation along with Lenox or
(16:12):
or or ourselves, but we can provide that that that
atmosphere for the team to get out and say, man,
this is really really cool that. I'm sure I'm at work,
but man, this is really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, it's it's nice to hear that Lennux supports something
like that as well. Uh and then heart Sorry, Heat
for the Heroes? How did that come about?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
So that was essentially three or four of us and
our management team said, hey, we want to add a
couple of programs this year. You know, what what do
we want to what do we want to do? And
Heat for the Holidays was one of those ones that
pops up initially because we think, all right, it's holidays,
we want to give something. It's cold, we want to
get that that that heat going, and a young lady
(16:53):
from our management team said, what about you know, veterans
and how we do that and and so we discussed
that and we said, well, let's do them both. And
so that's kind of where we landed this year. Those
two programs are kind of slated to continue annually, so
we look forward to doing it again next year. And
so with Lennox Feel the Love, it's October, Heat for
(17:14):
the Heroes is November, and Pete's Gift to Heat is December.
So we're covering those last three cold months of the
year to at least try and help somebody in the
community kind of get back get back on their heat
with a new operating furnace.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So, speaking of the cold, with winter being here, what
are some practical tips you can offer people who are
listening right now to help help us stay warm and
maybe save on some energy costs. You probably have all
sorts of ideas of ways to help people.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Sure well, I would say that when it comes to
energy costs, as we see those energy costs rise, if
you haven't, I would consider making the switch into a
high efficiency heating unit. Whether most everything that's kind of
installed now is high efficiency. So if you've done an
upgrade in the last couple of years, you're probably you know,
(18:03):
kind of there. But if you're sitting on an older furnace,
it's something to consider because you are you're you're spending
a dollar on fuel usage and twenty percent of that's
making its way out the chimney, right, and so you
want to get into the the efficiency range of the
mid nineties, high nineties something like that. So that's kind
of the greater scope. But beyond that, you want to
(18:23):
make sure you're changing the filter. Okay, that's probably our
number one service call as people just forget about that
filter in the basement and it gets dirty and then
the airflow slows down, which creates a couple of situations
where you need a technician to have a look. And we,
along with you know, many many other contractors, offer maintenance
plans to where we can come out and see it,
once for the furnace, once for the air conditioning. We
(18:44):
can get you kind of square and ready to roll
for that season, which is gives you that peace of
mind and have that filter looked at and those kinds
of things.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So there are that many calls that really it's just
the filter, Like if they had actually changed the filter,
that that would solve the problem.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's out of sight, out
of mind a little bit. And that furnace is taking
your room temperature air and then heating it and delivering
it back to you as warm air through your supply ducts.
And what happens is when the filter gets neglected for
a little bit too long, is it starts to kind
of choke out that furnace, and the furnace just basically says, hey,
I'm running a little hot. I'm going to call it
(19:20):
quits for the day, you know. So uh so Yeah,
keeping that that clean air filter to allow that continual
kind of breathing moment for the furnace to keep going
efficiently is key to keeping keeping the service text out
of your house. Right, And we'd love to come see it,
but if we can help you kind of avoid a
service situation and an outage in your heat, we would
prefer it too, because again, it induces a little sense
(19:44):
of panic for a lot of homeowners and they say, man,
it is cold, my furnace isn't working now what right? Yeah, Now,
we'll be there when you call but if you keep
up on the smaller maintenance things, it can go a
long way to to avoiding those those service costs.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, so on a way you can remember to do
that is what daylight saying. You can just do it
daylight savings and don't forget. You can also change your
batteries for your fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors during
those times too. This can be those dates can kind
of be your dates to remember to change your filters,
change your batteries, keep your home safe.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
That way, you don't have to like remember you.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Know, yeah, well in the depending on which filter, there's
a few different ones. Some will last just six months
to a year, some are thirty days. It just depends,
but whichever one you choose, Yeah, you're right, we need
a reminder of some sort, right, And so I am
notorious for using Siri to remind me of things all
the time. And so you can a lot of modern
(20:38):
thermostats have a little reminder you can click for thirty days.
So set yourself whatever reminder that is. And because if
most people are like me, I say, oh, I know
I'm going to remember that two months goes by, I
have no idea what I was supposed to remember, and
so I use Syria to kind of prompt me with
those reminders from time to time.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I feel like I'm probably in trouble already. If
it's every month, I'm definitely not going to get on that.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, it just depends which kind you have. There's some uh,
you know, some of your your larger ones can go
just a little bit longer. It just depends what you
got in there. But either way, they're all They all
work well and work as designed if they're changed on
the right cadence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And your high efficiency heating unit, let's talk about that
for a sec because is it correct that could be
more expensive than another kind, but in the long run
it's going to save you money.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Well, yeah, how does that work for the consumer?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Right? So, your your standard efficiency now is kind of
starts at ninety five ninety six? Right now? Is that
to say? Can I have the efficiency with the ninety
six percent base model? Sure? Do you want bells and whistles?
Do you want you know, some of the variable capability
which allows you essentially to say, hey, if my home
(21:50):
only needs to heat just a little bit, I'd like
my furnace just to run at forty capacity just for
a few minutes to get me there instead of this
full bore heat is as much as you can type
of stuff. So the efficiency is there kind of regardless
where you land. When you upgrade, it's just about what
kind of bells, whistles and different things do you want
(22:10):
to come with that. But but yes, in the end,
it's like most things, if as you kind of build
into some of the offerings with that piece of equipment,
the price will increase a little bit, but the efficiency
now can get you up to ninety nine percent efficient.
And what do you mean by efficiency, Well, essentially, like
I said before, so now for that dollar you spend
on gas usage, you're actually seeing ninety nine percent of
(22:31):
it being used for you as opposed so we're throwing chimney,
So we're throwing a penny out of the chimney instead
of twenty cents.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, right, all right, Well there you go, I mean
right there, save you, save you money. So that's whether
you realize it or not, it is well.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And you'll, again, like to to what you stated, over
the long run, you're going to see it. You're going
to see it in your in your energy bills. You're
going to see them start to come down and understand
the comfort level as well changes because you're delivering a
nice flow of nice even heat. Back in the day,
they used to say, hey, man, throw the biggest furnace
(23:05):
you can in there and let that thing kick heat up.
And and so what you'll see when people do upgrade
is like, man, the old one blue. It was so
hot and it was so loud, and we're like, well,
the idea now is that your comfort system. You don't
really want to notice it. You just want to know
that you're saving money and your home is just as
comfortable as you want it. And you don't need to
know that it's kicking on or kicking off. You just
(23:26):
want to live your life right right exactly. So there's
obviously some thought changes in the last you know, thirty
forty years in regard to how you want to deliver comfort,
and people are far more, far more app now to
pay attention to their the economics of it, as opposed
to just say, and heat this thing. You know, back
in the seventies, gas was cheap, right, and you just
(23:47):
get this thing to run all you want. Nowadays, people
are keeping an eye on their the carbon footprint as
well as the cost of what the energy usage is.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Great point about that carbon footprint that people are conscientious
of now too.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So let's move into refrigeration.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So there there's you know this A two L like
new regulations that are happening on we're hearing about that,
but I don't really know what it is, and but
it could affect you know, it could affect us. Can
you give us some idea on that, because it's we're
talking about pricing and money and stuff like that, So
how could that affect consumers?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
So the A two L is a refrigerant change that's
being you know, rolled out January first, twenty twenty five. Okay,
So that can't your your older refrigerant, which is essentially
called our four ten A which is what we're kind
of all using right now, can't be produced in equipment anymore, okay.
So in our state, in our zone, we can continue
(24:46):
to install stock of four ten A until the end
of twenty twenty five, okay, And so you know that's
that's part of the If you can find a company
that that is prepared to do that and kind of
carry that a little bit, you're gonna be able to
save a little more if you are looking to replace. Now,
that's not to say changing refrigerants isn't the move for
you and looking to get in front of in front
(25:07):
of that the changeover, a lot of companies aren't. A
lot of people are for us. In order to kind
of help our customers as best we can, you know,
we're going to continue to do what we need to
do in stock equipment that still fits what our customers need.
Now the changeover is a little different. You are, we
are going to see a price hike and just new equipment.
(25:28):
That's that's just how it's going to be with with
your A two O refrigerant. And the reason they do
that is it's a low GWP refrigerant, which is global
warm global warming potential, and so that'll continue as we
look ten years down the road, this refrigerant that's being
unrolled and twenty twenty five will likely begin to get
phased out as well. We'll be introduced to something now
(25:48):
or something then with even a lower GWP. And again
that goes to our conversation a little bit about the
global footprint across across the world really and everyone kind
of tightening their bootstraps to make some changes to to
kind of to help us through that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Right, what are your what do you want to see
for Brandez over the coming years. What are some of
your goals and for your for the colleagues that you
work with and the company. What do you want to
have happened in your future?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Well, I want to continue to grow that that number
of people that work for us, that two hundred number
we talked about, and we want to continue to employ
community members where they can, you know, put put forth
effort for us, effort for themselves and continue to contribute
to their community. In twenty twenty five, we are looking
to add a plumbing division, which is something that is
(26:39):
near and dear to our hearts because we we want
to be a full home service company, right and plumbing
is one that we haven't taken on yet. So that's
an area we're going to focus to be able to
offer our customers. Going to be hiring, yes, we are, absolutely,
and you know we're we're we're hiring as well, you know,
because we're looking to grow in twenty five, so we're
(26:59):
looking to add you know, i'll say twenty as a
round number h VAC technicians as well. So we'll continue
to look and to build for my my team that
I work with, whether that be our field team or
our management team and things like that. What do I
want to see from them and for them? I want
to continue to see them advance. I want them to
(27:19):
continue to feel challenged and and continue to, you know,
come forth with ideas that that makes sense for the
community as a whole. And I am a firm believer
that when we get together, it's never this dictatorship where
where where you know, I say here's how we're going
to do it. It's a who's who's got a great
idea for us today? And if it is, I will
(27:41):
we'll gladly talk it out and figure out how do
we make that happen. And there's the team that that
I work with every day continues to provide great insight
as to how we can become better and more more premiere,
I guess is a good way to say it. But
continuing that strive towards excellence is what I want to
(28:01):
continue to see.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And how do you see the HVAC industry changing in
the next five to ten years? Anything coming up that
you know we talked about obviously one change in refrigeration,
but anything else that's happening in the industry that you
can tell us about.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Well, the refrigeration. The refrigerant change will be a fairly
large undertaking, and it's not anything we haven't done before.
We did it in two thousand and nine or ten
when we switched from the old refrigerant to what we're
using now. But what we're continuing to see and thankfully
is young people that are coming into the trades earlier,
(28:34):
and so we're seeing great whether it be nineteen and
twenty year olds that are either a year or so
out of school or have decided, hey, I want to
go with trades. We're continuing to see that project itself,
which makes us really happy because it's a long future
that we that we're preparing for, you know, because retirement age.
They don't even get to think about it yet, they're
only twenty.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
True, what do you Let's finish our wonderful conversation about
what do you love about what you do?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I think the for me, it's it's the ability to
help people. I've I've been I've been put in a
position to be able to not only help community members
and make decisions that can affect people within the community,
but I can make decisions and be part of making
decisions that help to see team, the team with me grow.
(29:24):
One of the things that that has kind of struck
me over the last year or two is when I
see my team members getting married, having their first kids,
and and I just kind of look back and say,
I remember when these guys that I worked with were like, oh,
it's your first kid, congratulations, And now that's me. And
I love to see you're you're you're comfortable enough in
(29:44):
your your trade that you're willing to start a family,
You're willing to get married, you're willing to say I
have a career, let's build our life for me. That's
huge and I love seeing it.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Wow, that's that was kind of an unexpected comment that
part of what you love to see is like the
building of families in your own in your own building.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, absolutely, it's where we have. I'm sure everybody says this,
but we've got that that family atmosphere, and it's one
of those things where you know, we'll we'll argue like
brother and sister, but nobody else gets to argue with us,
you know. So, but seeing seeing the team build their
families and and go through the early part of their
lives and it's fantastic to see you're.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Gonna be there a long time.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I plan on, I plan on, I like it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Our guest today has been Tim Jury. He's the general
manager for Randazzo Heating, Cooling, and Electrical and soon to
be a refrigerator, soon to be plumbing too, right, Yeah,
you guys are going to have to change your name
and your a jingle and everything. You guys, I know
you know the jingle out there, all right, Tim, Thanks
for joining us, stay sure. Appreciated the conversation and everything
you do to help folks in the community.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Thank you for having me. This has been great.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
This has been light up the d a community a
fairs program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here all episodes on this station's podcast page.
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